Unfortunately, the very thing Aunt Chloe feared most happens: Uncle Tom is sold to Simon Legree, an evil man who has a very different view of slaves than Augustine or Mr. Shelby
had. Simon Legree works his slaves to death. According to Simon Legree:
I don’t go for savin’ niggers. Use up, and buy more, ‘s my way;-- makes you less trouble, and I’m quite sure it comes cheaper in the
end….Stout fellers last six or seven years; trashy ones gets worked up in two or three…When one nigger ’s dead, I buy another, and I find it
comes cheaper and easier, every way.
Harriet Beecher Stowe shows Simon Legree as an animalistic man, who sets his slaves against each other, even putting two of the slaves as task masters over the others. Legree
encourages the slaves to snitch on each other.
2.1.4 Setting
The next element is setting. Setting usually means that background, environment, place and time when a story happened. Welleck 1977:221 stated that:
“Setting is environment; and environments, especially domestics interiors, may be viewed as metonymic, or methaporic, expressions
of character. A man’s house is an extension of himself. Describe it and you
have described him.”
And,
“Setting may be the expressions of human will. It may, if it is a natural setting, be a projection of the will… Between man and nature there are
obvious correlatives, most intensely but not
exclusively felt by the romantics.”
And also,
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“Again, setting may be the massive determinant –environment viewed as physical or social causation, something over which the individual has little
individual control.”
Richard Taylor 1981:70, in his book entitled Understanding the elements of literature: Its forms, techniques and Cultural Conventions, said:
“In fact, setting need not even be physical in terms of time and space, but may well be constituted of psychological of moral conditions which are
common to a given time, place, or set of circumstances.”
Therefore, the setting of Native Son story, for example, not only a big city in America in 1900, but also t he description that black people is criminal, white people is cruel. The other
example, the setting from Hard Time is England, industrious country where at one time while utilitarianism viewed as opinion in main social life.
While, Panuti Sudjiman 1988:44 in his book entitled Memahami Cerita Rekaan, quote the opinion of William Kenney:
“Latar meliputi penggambaran lokasi geografis, termasuk topografi pemandangan, sampaik epada perincian perlengkapan sebuah ruangan;
pekerjaanatau kesibukan sehari-hari para tokoh;waktu berlakunya kejadian, masa sejarahnya, musim terjadinya;lingkungan, agama, moral,
intelektual, social, dan emosional para tokoh.”
By the statements above, setting is very important to the readers to understand and to catch out the picture of the story clearly.
Still in the same book, Sudjiman 1988:44 differentiate setting according to the kinds, they are social setting and physical setting. Social setting include the description of society,
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social behavior, lifestyle, language, etc.While physical setting is place like building, area, and etc.
The Setting of Uncle Tom’s Cabin Novel
a. Time setting
Although there is no clear explanation about he time in the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, this novel explained the time implicitly. In the beginning of the story, written that the day was
a winter day on February. “late in the afternoon of a chilly day in February p. 1 Besides, the next part in this novel, still in implicitly, described how Eliza Harris who
escaped from Dan Haley and his body guard, crossing the Ohio River by hurdled ice floe on the river.
The huge fragment of ice which she alighted pitched and Creackedas her weight on it, but she stayed there not a Moment,….she leaped to another
and still another cake’sStrumbling- leaping- slipping- springing upwards again p. 67
From the explanation above , I’m sure that event in this novel started on February toward the termination of winter time because the ice which closed Ohio River is getting molten.
b. Place Setting
In this novel, Harriet Beecher Stowe use a different place setting. Separated from place setting that faced by Elize in her escape, Uncle Tom face the changes of place setting for fur
times. Started from Kentucky, the place for Tom and his employer Mr. Shelby. The second place is on the La Belle Riviere Ship, when Tom sold to Dan Haley, and Haley takes Uncle Tom with
him on a riverboat that travels down the Mississippi toward New Orleans. Along the way author Harriet Beecher Stowe takes the time to show a typical and all to common occurrence, the
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parting of a young black mother from her child. During the course of the journey the mother commits suicide by throwing herself overboard. Uncle Tom, though also missing his family,
perseveres with great courage and meekness. He uses the boat ride as an opportunity to befriend young Evangeline, a white girl who is the daughter of an affluent slave owner. When Eva falls
overboard and Uncle Tom saves her life by jumping in after her, it leads to Eva’s father, Augustine St. Clare, buying Uncle Tom to serve as a horse driver. Augustine St. Clare bought
Tom and brought Tom to their house in New Orleans. Here, the third place setting to Tom, uncle Tom find a kind person, exactly a kind
employer. Big house and built with Spanish and French style.
The carriage stopped in front of an ancient mansion, built in thatMixture of Spanish and French style, of which there are
Specimens in some parts of New Orleans. It was built in the Moorish fashion,…….p. 184
But, no long after, Augustine St. Clare passed away. And the next place setting is in cotton plantation in Red River. Here, Simon Legree is Tom’s employer.
2.2 Religious of Philosophy
