The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books by Azar Nafisi Page B

James said it was as if “a fish, a wonderful, leaping fish, had simply flown through the air.” It was so effective in stirring up emotion that more than a century later, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, my daughter, after finishing the book, woke up every morning for a whole week crying for the death of Uncle Tom and his little friend Eva.
    Unlike
Huck Finn,
which challenges all authority, perhaps especially that of religion, most of the fictional slave narratives were “Christian” in tone and message. In one sense, of course, they offered up an alternative view of Christianity, challenging slave owners and their preachers to defend and justify slavery. In this sense,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
and novels by African Americans such as
Iola Leroy
claim Christianity and make it their own. As Edmund Wilson writes in
Patriotic Gore,
which Paul Berman described to me as “wrong analysis, great portraits,” Uncle Tom himself is a true example of Christian charity, turning the other cheek. His triumph lies in his refusal to become vengeful like his white masters.
    It is interesting that the two protagonists in
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
are also a slave and a young child, as if only a child not yet tainted by “conscience” or trained to hate by society can truly empathize with a slave. Eva, unlike Huck, is not a vagrant but the beautiful daughter of Tom’s new master, whom he loved “as something frail and earthly, yet almost worshipped her as something heavenly and divine.” We are told he “half believed,” when he first saw her, “that he saw one of the angels stepped out of his New Testament.” Tom meets Eva St. Clare on a riverboat headed down the Mississippi River, and the bond between them is based on their good hearts and love of the Bible. Eva’s kindness and friendship make Tom’s separation from his family seem easier. Unlike Huck, Eva does not change much over the course of the story: she is pure and constantly questions the condition of slaves. On her deathbed, she requests that her father free all the family slaves.
    As powerful as
Uncle Tom
is, it was written for a political and social purpose, and it shows. Rather than let the characters do the work, Harriet Beecher Stowe intervenes and desperately at times tries to persuade the reader of the heinous nature of slavery. And while she portrays many characters forcefully, she cannot resist giving “white attributes” to her black characters. Little Eva, the most important character in the novel after Tom, is also the weakest. She never quite wholly acquires flesh and blood and is a little irritating, reminding us of just how earthy and real Huck Finn is. He does not play on our sentiments, but stirs our hearts in ways we had never imagined possible.
    Stowe was quick to say that she was seduced by ideas; stories were for her a vehicle through which to present those ideas to incite action. Twain was attracted to ideas when he could turn them into stories. She wanted to change the world, while he challenged the world by creating an alternative reality. After touring St. Paul’s Cathedral during a trip to London in 1872, Twain wrote in his notebook: “Expression—expression is the thing—in art. I do not care what it expresses, and I cannot tell, generally, but expression is what I worship, it is what I glory in, with all my impetuous nature.”
    Although from the moment they meet, Jim depends on Huck for his life and freedom, in more ways than one Huck’s own freedom and life depend on Jim. This is not only because Jim looks after Huck and helps him find food and shelter but also because he is the first person to see Huck after his staged death, and so in one sense he resurrects him. Like the rest of us, Huck needs to be seen in order to exist. Later, he discovers that he needs to feel, to empathize with others, in order to become more fully himself. All through their adventures, Huck finds his own moral compass with the help of Jim. As soon as they meet under