Stowe

When reading a traditional piece of children’s literature, many lessons are being taught. Like we have mentioned before, early children’s literature always had a didactic purpose. Most of the time the author was striving to teach children a moral lesson through the use of good and bad characters. When reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin, this moral lesson being taught by the author through children is mainly thrown completely out of the window. I have not had a chance to read the full novel but from the few chapters I have been able to read, nothing presented in them really shows a moral lesson that is being taught through children or for children. With the horrors of slavery being displayed, it is very hard to be a child and look past the fear of the unknown. In the novel, Harry the young boy is clearly frightened to sleep in the beginning of chapter seven. “But, mother, if I do get asleep, you won’t let him get me?” This statement shows not only the fear that is running through Harry but also the harsh thought of if he is caught what will become of him next. As a child, your mother is one of the only things that you are comforted by. You feel as though they can take on the world. Stowe is not afraid to hide the reality of slavery and really shows this through the fear in both the mother and child. Unlike most of the children’s literature we have read, I do not think this novel at all teaches a moral lesson for or through the children.