In the contemporary era, the issue of race remains a prevalent topic in public discussion. Thus, Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad is meaningful as it explores the legacy of racial injustice in the United States and its consequences in today’s society. In his development of the underground railroad as a literal and physical vehicle to freedom, Whitehead is able to candidly detail the ubiquitous nature of racial prejudice and the horrors associated with it. Over the course of his novel, the author utilizes a variety of rhetorical devices in order to further explore the many hardships that ‘freedom’ inevitably entails. In particular, Whitehead’s use of imagery, character interactions and figurative language brings to attention aspects of race relations that were and are still often misunderstood or disregarded by society.
Throughout the novel, Whitehead utilizes a girl named Cora to navigate the political and personal consequences of escaping slavery, the Underground Railroad, and her transition from the title of fugitive to freed. Cora’s ability to convey descriptions of events both tragic and hope-filled such as the dehumanization of slaves or the truth of freedom, while utilizing literary elements, create an emotional understanding of the 1800’s of the United States. From this, derives a bond with the reader that pushes their understanding of the evil nature of slavery that society deemed appropriate therefore enhancing their understanding of history. While only glossed over in most classroom settings of the twenty-first century, students often neglect the sad but true reality that the backbone of slavery, was the dehumanization of an entire race
The novel of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead takes place in the early 1800’s during the slavery era, in the southern state of Georgia. This realistic- fiction novel expresses themes of freedom, violence, the classification “good” and “bad”, influential pasts, racial hardship. Whitehead portrays a magnificent story of a young slave named Cora, who travels across the southern states on a railroad cars that are physically underground. Cora is persuaded by a another slave named Caesar to escape her home of the Georgia plantation. However, hot on their trail is slave catcher Ridgeway, who has a personal axe to grind with Cora.
The novel The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is full of ahistorical elements. In a book about slavery in America, his use of ahistorical elements results in a commentary on racial discrimination and abuse in a unique, narrative way. He portrays every state differently, using each of them as an example of a different type of discrimination. South Carolina is represented as a “progressive” and modern state, with new and innovative ideas on how to treat slaves. It even has the Griffin Building to represent its modernism, even though that wasn 't built historically until 1910.
The globalized black experience, informed by collective cultural identity, shared history, common experience of racial oppression and marginalization by racist ideologies, is represented in narratives transforming it into a discourse of subversion and resistance. The novel, Kindred, by the Afro-American writer Octavia Butler, employs the fantastic element of time travel to present the Black diasporic experience as a continuum which forms a link between the cultural past and the present day hybridized identities. Dana, the Black female protagonist of the narrative, finds herself sporadically travelling between her present day life in 1976 California and the antebellum South plantation in 1815
Surely, nobody wants to live alone and desperate for companionship and Dostoyevsky uses that to his advantage. Furthermore, defining the Underground Man’s intelligence as his Western beliefs which then lead him to isolation shows just how much the author despises the movement. By using the character’s traits against himself, Dostoyevsky perfectly exploits the narrator to his advantage and pushes the audience in his
Southern authors during the Antebellum era, such as Kate Chopin, author of several southern gothic short stories, published many works that changed the common ideals of southern culture, providing many literary instances that influenced the thoughts about gender bias and racial identity. This made especially evident within Chopin’s short story “Desiree’s Baby.” In this story, she introduces a new and nontraditional concept of thought regarding gender and race, as well as their effects on daily life during the 19th century. Kate Chopin 's "Desiree 's Baby" exhibits several crucial thematic messages, one of which ultimately proves the impact of both racial and gender identities on social judgement, made evident by her use of symbolism and irony, proving that race not only attributes to social class, but gender does as well.
Written by Frantz Fanon, “Black Skin, White Masks” documents his observations of the colored race living in a white world, specifically racism and how it is internalized by its victims. The author emphasizes the adoption of the white man’s language as an indication of a split from one’s own culture to adapt into the white culture. He also presents chapters examining the relationships of a woman of color and a white man as well as a man of color and a white woman. Fanon further dedicates a section detailing the inferiority of the colored man and the superiority of the white man. Based on his collection of research, observations, and opinions, I believe he was able to convey his topic of study powerfully.
Her narrative focuses on the white women experience of captivity, and it aims to highlight the struggles and the humiliation the English captivate went through. However, most of the critics believe that Rowlandson is prejudice, as she views herself and her culture as more superior and more pure. Throughout the whole narrative she intentionally describes the Indian as barbarous creatures, murderous wretches, and wolves. It is true that she was imprisoned by the Indian, but she herself admit that she did not exposed any physical or sexual violence, unlike Jacobs who suffers from all kinds of physical and sexual oppression. Moreover, Rowlandson used an overly emotional language to impress her audience and to gain their
In the story, "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" it says, " She discovered that freedom meant more than the right to keep the money that one earned. It was the right to vote and to sit on juries"(448). The actions of Harriet Tubman, Thomas Garrett, and Ellen Craft imply that they relate to the theme of freedom and sacrifice illustrated by the quote, "We got to go free or die. And freedom 's not bought with dust." Harriet Tubman gave a lot for the freedom of the slaves through acts of leadership on their journey.