Introduction Paragraph Secrets at Uncle Toms Cabin

A.Attention Grabber

B. Background Cassandra Clare once said, Lies and secrets, they are like a cancer in the

C. Thesis/Claim soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind.

Although most of people would agree that keeping secrets can be necessary

at times, overall, society encourages us to share things. In the song, Uncle

Toms Cabin, the singer challenges this idea by presenting a speaker who

witnesses a crime, but are unable to report it to the authorities. Warrant in the

song Uncle Toms Cabin uses narration, visual imagery and situational irony

to discuss that secrets can be necessary to survive.

In the song, the use of narration helps the audience see that secrets

Body Paragraphs must be kept to survive. Narration poetry usually tells a story, and to tell a

A. Claim with Transition story there must be characters and setting. At the beginning of the song, the

B. Define the Terms speaker establishes these two things. Just for the record lets get the story

and Introduce the straight/ Me and Uncle Tom were fishin it was getting pretty late/ Out on a

quote cypress limb above the wishin well/Where they say it got no bottom say it take

C. Evidence from the you down to hell (1-4).Here the author is describing that the speaker and his

text with citation uncle are fishing at night. By saying this he is showing who the story will be

D. Breakdown of the about and where it will take place. The setting makes the audience think of a

Evidence dangerous time and place where bad things are likely to happen in the

E. Explanation of narrative. While the speaker doesnt tell us what the secret is yet, the phrase

Support of Claim lets get the story straight, lets the audience know that this is a confession.

F. Explanation of Usually, when people confess that means there is a secret being revealed that

Support of Thesis could have big consequences. It comes out in the next stanza that the

G. Concluding
 Sentence consequences could even cost the speaker his life. To reveal the nature of the

secret he begins to describe exactly what happened that night.

H. Claim with Transition The band uses visual imagery to show the importance of keeping a

I. Define the Terms secret. Early in the song, the band establishes the setting in the swamp, and

and Introduce the then the speaker describes what he saw Two men walking in the pale

quote moonlight/ Sheriff John Brady and Deputy Hedge/ Haulin two limp bodies

J. Evidence from the down to the waters edge (6-8). This describes how the sheriff and the deputy

text with citation are throwing dead bodies into the pond at night. This is visual imagery

K. Breakdown of the because there is a description that includes the people, the time of day, and

Evidence what they are doing so the reader could imagine it. The image of a sheriff and

L. Explanation of deputy hiding bodies would be a secret that most people would be afraid to

Support of Claim share because of what the authorities might do in retaliation. This shows that

M. Explanation of for the speaker if he wants to survive he will have to keep this secret. The

Support of Thesis author then begins to discuss the crisis of who could the speaker possibly tell

N. Concluding the secret to.

Sentence At this point in the song, Warrant uses situational irony to express how

O. Claim with Transition a key to survival is keeping secrets. Situational irony is when the expectations

P. Define the Terms of the audience are not met, but instead a twist ending is presented. The

and Introduce the speaker and his uncle manage to leave the crime scene and make it back to

quote Toms Cabin. The speaker and his uncle then have the following conversation.

Q. Evidence from the Oh my God, Tom, who are we going to tell?/ The Sheriff, he belongs in a

text with citation prison cell (23-24). At this point the speaker wants to figure out who they can

R. Breakdown of the report the police to, but his uncle replies, Keep your mouth shut, thats what

Evidence were going to do/ Unless you want to wind up in the wishing well too

S. Explanation of (25-26).Here the uncle explains that there is no one that they can tell their

Support of Claim secret to. This is an example of situational irony for several reasons. One
T. Explanation of reason is that in most instances, the police are searching for who has

Support of Thesis murdered people and disposed the bodies, not the other way around. Another

U. Concluding reason that this is situational irony is because most people listening to the

Sentence story would assume that the uncle encouraged his nephew to tell the story

because the song begins with Just for the record lets get the story straight

(1) which means he is telling the story to someone. This shows that, according

to the uncle, the speaker must keep this secret if he doesnt want to be killed.

Although many people believe that secrets are dangerous to keep,

Warrant in the song Uncle Toms Cabin discuss that secrets can be

necessary to survive. Through the use of storytelling, rich description, and

twist ending the audience can easily see that in the dangerous situation of

being on the wrong side of lawmen, keeping a secret, at least for a little while,

might be for the best. Although by the end of the song, the audience hearing

the song is let in on the secret and given the details, the truest message might

be to keep a secret until the best time presents itself. Warrant might agree

with Clare and want to end the spread of the Sheriff and Deputys destructive

presence in town by having the speaker share the story with all of us.