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Chapter 26
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Uncle Tom's Cabin, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Slavery and Race
Christianity and Christian Charity
Women
Home
Freedom
Summary
Analysis
The St. Clare house is in mourning, and Adolph and Rosa have shrouded Eva’s room in white, where she lies. Topsy comes to pay her respects, and Miss Ophelia, moved by Topsy’s apparent change (inspired by her contact with Eva), promises to love her and to help her become a good Christian. Marie helps with none of the preparations but lies weeping in her bedroom.
White is a color symbolically associated with Eva and evoking her purity. Topsy makes clear her desire to be good and to live according to Eva’s example. Marie, however, is unchanged by Eva’s death—Eva’s Christian message has not touched her.
Themes
St. Clare returns to town and to his normal activities, but he has been emotionally devastated by Eva’s death. Mammy worries about him. Marie claims he never cared for Eva at all. Tom goes in to St. Clare to tell him that Eva is now in heaven, where she belongs, and St. Clare breaks down, wondering how Tom can maintain his faith in such a trying time. Tom tells him he must simply love Jesus, as Jesus loves all mankind. Tom tells St. Clare to read the eleventh chapter of the book of John, which he does, aloud, and Tom leads St. Clare in prayer, soothing the grieving father somewhat.
St. Clare repeats his desire to believe in God and his trouble understanding how a benevolent God can allow suffering to persist in the world. Uncle Tom shows him how to pray as Jesus showed his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere in the Gospels. This draws another parallel between Tom’s behavior and Christ’s.
Themes
