Shelby?s house, Uncle Tom is a sort of patriarch in religious matters in the neighborhood. Having, naturally, an organization in which the morale is strongly predominant, together with a greater breadth and cultivation of mind than his companions, he is looked up, as a sort of minister among them; and the simple, hearty, sincere style of his exhortations might have edified even better educated persons. But it was in prayer that he especially excelled. In the language of a pious old Negro, he “prayed right up.” While he is at St. Clare?s house, he meets the pitiful, old slave Prue. Prue should spend all her times to care her mistress and she loves the milk, but her mistress refuses to buy milk for her, so her only child is starved to death. Because of that, she becomes drunk and deranged. Tom sympathizes with her very much offers to carry her basket for her, and send the Gospel to her. He is always giving others the belief of life.

Tom loves not only black people, but also white people. When his first master is going to sell him, he has no complain on it. After he stays at the second master?s home, he often advises St. Clare not to go to these celebrating parties. In order to let St. Clare have the words in mind, Tom even goes down on his knees and pleads with him not to attend those revelries. Tom, like Jesus, is the embodiment of God and love in Christianity.

Though Tom is submissive to his master, he has the consciousness to define the right and wrong. If the master treats him kindly, he will pay more reciprocation to his master. His first master Mrs. Shelby gives him all his property to manage. He once lets Tom to go to Cincinnati alone to do business for him. Tom has the opportunity to run away. Instead, he comes back on time. He does not want to betray his master. Tom?s second master St. Clare gives him money without looking at it, because he trusts Tom very much. “Tom had every facility and temptation to dishonesty; and nothing but an impregnable simplicity of nature, strengthened by Christian faith, could have kept him from it. But, to that nature, the very unbounded trust reposed in him was bond and seal for the most scrupulous accuracy.” Even Tom?s third master Legree also gives him his property to keep. However, once his master does the thing he thinks wrong, he will do it at his own will. Legree asks Tom to beat other slaves,

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but Tom does not do it. He says, “ I?m willin to work, night and day----and , Mas?r , I never shall do it,----never!” His worship is not blind in that he only obeys what he thinks right. From learning to read the Bible and writing letters to his kids, Tom is consistently trying to improve himself despite the limits placed upon him by slavery. From the above paragraph, we can conclude that, Tom is loyal and submissive to his master and at the same time he has a good distinction between what is right and what is wrong.

Mrs. Stowe has her intention to depict Tom as a Christ—figure. Her most obvious purpose is to evoke the white men who believe in Christianity in the north, to let them have the position to support anti—slavery actions and to hope them to realize the evil to keep slavery system in a Christian country. She needs to compose a character of black man who can be accepted by most whites. So she endorses Tom a lot of characters similar to Christ. Tom is the man who can arouse the sympathy from the white.

We all think Tom is a man with good qualities and immaculate character. He is a stereotype with typical African features and disposition of that race, yet Tom has the passive character in his life. His non-resistant principle is not accepted by the white readers, but his upright quality is not separated from his firm belief and personal strength. In a word, Tom is the representative of a kind of person rather than a single man. Whatever happens, he sticks to his belief in Christianity and tried to help others to change by persuasion. Mrs. Stowe portrayed such a character as Tom because she herself believes in Christianity and was greatly influenced by Christianity and believes in the kindness in human beings.

2.2 Little Eva

The five-year old “Litter Eva” is characterized as a beautiful, angelic child. It is a female character that can?t be ignored. Eva?s name is “Evangeline St. Clare”; “Evangeline” symbols the ideal image of an angel. In Bible, angel is sent by God to help and save those who needed. The little Eva is full of love and friendliness to others. She tries to do her bit to help others. In this way, she is just like an angel sent

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