The Power of Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, had an enormous impact on American culture, both then and Now. It is still considered a controversial novel, and many secondary schools have banned it from their libraries. What makes it such a controversial novel? One reason could be that the novel is full of melodrama and many people consider it a caricature of the truth. Others said he didn't show enough of the horror of slavery, that he showed its softer side in most of his novel. Regardless of readers' differing opinions, it is obvious that its impact was great. For example, many of the characters in the book became stereotypes of slavery in the South. An example of this is Uncle Tom himself, whose name was eventually demoted to a nickname for blacks who were too subservient to whites. He became the stereotype of the passive slave who would do whatever his master told him, because it was his duty as a slave. Yet few remember how the strength of his faith was what allowed him to tolerate the horrors committed against him. Another example of Stowe's character stereotypes is Aunt Chloe, Uncle Tom's wife, and her children. Aunt Chloe is a great example because she has become the "Aunt Jemima" stereotype. She had a “round, black, shining face” and wore a checked headscarf, worked in the kitchen, took care of the kitchen and basically ran the house. Not to mention that for many years, black children were still stereotyped as mischievous like Mose, Pete, and, later in the novel, Topsy. Even slave owners and traders are now stereotypes. Mr. Shelby and his wife have become "gentlemen and women" slave owners, who consider themselves good Christians and try to care for their slaves, but still do not see blacks as equal to whites. Simon Legree became the stereotype of the cruel master, who let his property go to hell, but continued to work his slaves too hard and beat them senseless (or, in the cases of Tom and others , to death) when they didn't behave as he thought. it should.However there are other ways this novel influenced American culture. After its publication it helped spread the ideas of the abolitionist movement.