Human cruelty was constantly present during the antebellum period. It is an essential part of American culture and must be reiterated to new generations. In the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe encapsulates human cruelty by describing Mr. Shelby's alteration, affects readers' emotions by displaying the viewpoints of various characters, and demonstrates the continued separation of families during the pre-war period. Shelby's dynamic character is constantly altered in the first third of the book. At the beginning of the novel, he is depicted as a protagonist due to the absence of the true protagonist, Uncle Tom, whose character is introduced in the latter stages of the novel. Stowe illustrates him as a noble man by stating, "Mr. Shelby had the appearance of a gentleman" (2). This is one of the first lines of the novel and it inspires the reader to think of him as a remarkable and respectable person. Establishing him as a positive person at the beginning of the novel is vital to the plot of the story, (as) later in the book, Stowe shows the dramatic negative changes in Mr. Shelby that occur to him (due to his involvement in a slave trade) because he is involved in a slave trade. The author also establishes Mr. Haley as the antagonist at the beginning of the novel by introducing Haley's filthy dialect. Mr. Haley frequently says "nigger" (2) and mispronounces words like "valeyable" (2). Stowe uses this technique in an attempt to compare Mr. Haley to Mr. Shelby and further confirm that Mr. Shelby is a positive character. As the novel develops, Mr. Shelby transforms into an unapologetic person. After a long conversation with his wife, he said: “I have agreed to sell both Tom and Harry; and I don’t know why I should be considered a monster because I do what everyone else does every day” (41). This statement depicts Shelby's perplexed state of mind. He is no longer the noble man he once was. He doesn't seem to feel shameful about betraying Tom and Harry's lives. The author also uses Mr. Shelby and other characters to display various opinions about life during the antebellum period, thereby affecting the readers' emotions. The most notable example that alternates sentiment with melancholy is Stowe's description of Mr. and Mrs. Shelby's feelings after a malicious conversation with Mr...