As Tom looks up to Leggier and tells him he would give everything in him If It was deed, Stows Illustrates the ability the human spirit has to overcome suffering. With Tom being the example, Stows uses the Christian faith as fuel to his ability to be Christ-Like throughout the novel. As Tom chooses to stay and not flee with Elise, he feels It was the right thing to do. When he Is sold from the Shelby to Haley, then to the SST. Claries, then finally ending with Leggier, Tom consistently obeyed his master despite their good or bad nature.
Stows describes him has “childlike” at times, representing the goodness of God. In this quote, Tom maintains a level of affection that a child would have towards a parent. The child still seeks approval and giving endless love regardless of how their parent treats them. “Man’s, if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I’d give ye my heart’s blood; and, if taking every drop of blood in this poor old body would save your precious soul, I’d give ‘me freely, as the Lord gave his for me. ” Tom gave to each person he came In contact with.
The Shelby family adored him to where Mrs… Shelby told Tom she would find a way to buy him back and bring him home. He was tortured for the information of the whereabouts of Sassy and Melamine, but refused n his heart when no one with an ounce of weakness could have. The unexpected ability to still be “good” even after he had been sold three times, lost his family and experienced a loss of innocence. This innocence was Eva. As the characters of Eve’s parents are revealed, there is a wonder how Eva turned out with a kind soul.
Stows uses Eva as an angelic creature, not allowing Eve’s illness to influence the effect she has on others. As Tom inspires love in these last words to Leggier, Eva spoke of kindness in her last words as well. In this last face off of Tom and Leggier, Stows ensures that the spirit of good prevails over evil. Tom tells Leggier not to put “this great sin on his soul”. Whether his motives were to stop the beating or truly looking for Lessee’s soul, Tom wins by telling Leggier that he will win in the end.
It does not matter what Leggier does because Tom’s struggles will be over soon. In ever situation where Stows puts good against evil, good overcomes by the standards of the Christian faith. When we compare Haley and Shelby, Stows sets them up as oppositions. While both are buy and sell slaves, Haley is seen as someone who treats them as things, whereas the Shelby family genuinely respects the members of their establishment. Stole’s evil, Haley, looses Elise and essentially looses money in his eyes.
Stole’s good, the Shelby, returns to bring Tom back home, only to find he has passed. The impact of these words said by Tom in this moment is to show the reader that if you have faith and believe in a higher power, you will be good like Tom. Stows romanticizes the idea that being Christ-like in the moments where we are tested the most, enables us to find an Almighty that was worth the fight for. Stows implies a level of ignorance in Leggier on page 347 when she says “No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man.
The Christian is composed by the belief of wise, all-ruling Father, whose presence fills the void unknown with light and order; but to the man who had dethroned God, the spirit-land is, indeed, in the words of the Hebrew poet, “a land of darkness and the shadow of death,” without any order, where the light is as darkness. Life and death to him are haunted grounds, filled with goblin forms of vague and shadowy dread. ” As Tom tells Leggier that his troubles will never end if he does not repent, Stows captures the intent of following the Christian ways to the salvation of the human spirit.
