But if a "series of sketches" is a linear composition (as any conventional novel must to a great extent be), Stowe also thought of her composition in Uncle Tom's Cabin as an overall design. In another statement that compares the book to visual art, she said she thought of it as a "mosaic" of "stones" (Donovan 30), in which all the pieces (or "fragments") contribute to the overall whole. Stowe's comparison here is later echoed by critic Elaine Showalter in her essay "Piecing and Writing" (in The Poetics of Gender), who views the book's structure as similar to that of a patchwork quilt — fittingly, one made in the popular "Log Cabin" pattern. In both the mosaic design and the quilt images, we see parts, each with its own shape, color, and perhaps interior design, fitted together to make a larger piece of art. The effect is not linear but overall, and it includes the possibilities of balance, direction, and movement.
We can begin to see — literally — the sort of design that is present in Uncle Tom's Cabin, if we arrange the book's 45 chapters in a more-or-less symmetrical shape, using some arbitrary symbols to identify them: say, an X for each chapter in the "Eliza" plot, an O for each one in the "Tom" plot, and an 8 for each in which the two plots are combined. (Chapter 45, "Concluding Remarks," not part of the original serial publication, can be a <> at the design's base.) Here it is:
8
XXO8XX
XXOXOX
OOOXOOO
OOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOO
XOOOOO8
O
<>
