In Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe there are two major Christ figures. Those two figures are Tom and Eva. They are Christ figures for many reasons, but mainly for their deaths which mirror Jesus' sacrificial death. I have read both Tom's and Eva's death scenes multiple times and I have also read Jesus' crucifixion in the Bible. Now I want to compare and contrast the scenes to try to understand what Stowe's goal for these characters was when she wrote the novel. Not only are their death scenes to be looked at but also their actions, because those are also similar to Christ, hence the term "Christ figure".
Christ's death scene is pretty straightforward if you are a Christian. I say this because most Christians have been hearing the story of Jesus' death since they were very young and in some sort of Sunday school or in church. Essentially, Jesus was crucified because he claimed to be the son of God and he also claimed to be a messiah. That is not why Tom and Eva died. The main thread that linked the deaths among the three is the thought that these deaths are sacrificial and in essence for the salvation of others. I see Jesus' and Tom's death as running much more in the same vein than Eva's death because she is dying anyway and therefore she is not really saving anyone, in my opinion, if she dies. On the other hand, neither Jesus nor Tom is sick and if they really don't want to die they could just not sacrifice themselves for others. Jesus helps others because he believes he is dying for "our" sins and Tom helps others in his death in the way that it leads to Emmeline and Cassy's escape and also the freeing of all of the slaves on Shelby Farm in Kentucky. Only in the small sense that Eva's death leads to St. Clare's conversion to Christianity and Ophelia's recognition and denunciation of her racial prejudice do I think that she is similar to Christ, but not in the superior way that Tom is to Christ. Tom is because he physically suffers and is beaten for his beliefs just like Jesus.
When I think about these two people (Eva and Tom) as modern day martyrs in a sense I see Eva as the rich women who donates a lot of her money to the poor but Tom as the man who actually gets involved with the poor; both are doing good things, but in a different way. Tom is more connected to the situation in the sense that he is in the fields trying to teach the others to work together, while Eva seems to do smaller deeds such as persuading her father to buy Tom or being kind to Topsy when no one else ever is. My impression is that Jesus is found within both Tom and Eva, but Tom's acts are more physical and Eva's are more mental. We also must remember she is a young girl and it is unrealistic to expect her to do too much that Jesus or Tom do.
As a holy character Eva seems to have a hard time pulling off a believable act. As an innocent child trying to show her family how she sees the horribleness of slavery, I can believe her, but when she moves into the mini-Jesus sermonizing to the slaves before her death I start to lose the sense that Stowe kept a grip on reality when writing this book. It is a nice parallel between Eva preaching to the slaves before death and Jesus preaching to the disciples before crucifixion, but who in their right mind thinks this young innocent girl can mature this quickly just because she is dying? Children are mature, but not that mature, at that age she would most likely be scared and crying (like most adults do when they are about to die). It is so unrealistic to think that a young child can face death bravely, much less an adult, when we know in reality very few people can do such a thing. Eva's character is a very powerful one because she is young, innocent, good, and had a somewhat Jesus-like sacrificial death.
Tom on the other hand is a Christian champion in Uncle Tom's Cabin. He leads a much more plausible life in the story when it comes to being Christ like figure. He actually suffers on the same level with everyone else and has transitory conflicts of faith thanks to Simon Legree. In the end though, Tom pulls through and withstands his doubts and even attempts to encourage others to be as strong as he is in his faith even though he is beaten and ends up dying. I can see Jesus in every aspect of Tom, unlike Eva. Even when Tom has flickering doubts in his faith it reminds me of the part in the Bible when Jesus cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus seems to have similar thoughts that Tom has about his faith when Jesus is being crucified. It is all very apparent that Stowe wants to present clear Christ figures in the book. Although there are two, Tom seems to be a better or at least more accurate figure.
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