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Thinking of Uncle Tom's Cabin as a romantic representation of utopia does increase its use value for me. That being said, even though I get the feeling this isn't the opinion of most of my classmates, I actually like Uncle Tom's Cabin. I know shocking. 

I've always liked to read to escape from reality. Books like this one are great precisely because they are laid out in black and white (err pun not intended). Stowe makes it easy to escape into her world and gives her reader the chance to just to read without really having to analyze and pick apart every single word she uses (cough...Melville). 

But that doesn't mean I think one should look at UTC in a mindless state. Just because the story is easy to follow and uses one dimensional characters doesn't mean the whole novel is mindless. Rather, it means that unlike Melville's Moby Dick, which one has to read while alert and on the lookout for craziness, one could just as easily take UTC to the beach as study it in class (although of course one would have to be willing to put up with the stares of your fellow sun-bathers).