“Was This the Little Lady Who Started the Great War?” » said Abraham Lincoln upon his first meeting with Harriet Beecher Stowe. The reaction of one of America's most famous presidents is a clear demonstration of the effectiveness of Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe is an effective author, as evidenced by the fact that she speaks directly to the reader and uses allegorical stories to present a clear and convincing argument and prove the unjust acts to which slaves were subjected. Lincoln's reaction was in part due to Stowe breaking the appearance of reality by speaking directly to the reader, also known as breaking verisimilitude. The first reason why Stow is an effective author is that she is able to force her audience to put themselves in the characters' shoes. There are several times in history that Stowe does this. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay One of the many times Stowe breaks verisimilitude is when she questions readers' maternal instincts. As Eliza desperately runs to protect her son Harry from the clutches of evil slave traders, Stowe asks readers how far they would go if it were one of their children: "If it were your Harry, your mother or your Willie, who were going to be taken from you by a brutal trader tomorrow morning... how fast could you walk? How many miles could you travel in these few brief hours, with your darling on your breast, your little head asleep on your shoulder, your soft little arms holding your neck with confidence? (Stow 80). Here, Stowe blatantly shatters plausibility. She uses this literary tactic to force the reader to sympathize with Eliza and Henry. In this example specifically, she is speaking to mothers and those with a maternal instinct. By putting a quote like this in Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe gives readers no choice but to put themselves in Eliza's shoes and feel for her, despite racial differences. As readers understand the unjust treatment of slaves, they will in turn understand what must be done to right the wrongs. In the final concluding remarks of Stowe's novel, she forces readers to question their morals by once again disrupting verisimilitude. She asks her readers a series of questions about what they truly know and believe is morally right. “Do not all American Christians owe a certain effort to the African race to repair the wrongs that the American nation has inflicted upon them? (Stowe 507) In Stowe's final chapter, she speaks directly to her audience, calling them to action. After providing insight into the lives of slaves, Stowe forces people to question themselves and ask themselves if they truly believe their actions are right and just. Many members of his audience would answer no to these questions. Perhaps it was Stowe's lack of verisimilitude that caused her to elicit the reaction she did in Abraham Lincoln when they first met. “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war” (Abraham Lincoln). Although there is speculation as to whether Mr. Lincoln himself said exactly this, it is a quote that the public has accepted and demonstrates the great impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin on American society. . The Civil War had an irreversible impact on American culture. If a book can lead to such a war, is it even possible to..