Throughout American history, there many common misconceptions such as the notion that Christopher Columbus was a daring hero who braved the “ocean blue” and was the first to discover America, but the most common misconception is the Underground Railroad. To this day many Americans are still left wondering whether the Underground Railroad was an actual railway that shipped slaves off to a life of freedom in the North through the use of underground tracks. Although some may understand that the Underground Railroad was in fact not a real railway and instead was a series of safe houses and undisclosed routes, they do not understand that all the success of the Underground Railroad cannot be accredited to rich, white men. The Underground Railroad
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In writing his novel, Whitehead dared to extend beyond the boundaries of the preset genre of historical fiction, incorporating elements of fantasy without discrediting his subject matter. His incredibly unique style of writing allows his readers to automatically buy into the authenticity of this genre-bending slave narrative without hesitation. As readers embark on their own journey through the novel, they are first introduced to Ajarry, who they soon learn is Cora’s grandmother. Ajarry’s chapter serves as a prologue to portray the gruesome conditions of the Middle Passage, which simultaneously allows readers to …show more content…
The metaphoric railway transforms readers into fugitive slaves, transporting them from South Carolina to North Carolina to Tennessee to Indian, providing readers with an understanding of how each state execute slavery differently. With each new state, Whitehead was able to incorporate a different aspect of the world’s history into Cora’s slave narrative. As the Underground Railroad leads Cora and Caesar to a town in South Carolina that seems to have taken a benevolent approach to the concept of slavery, Whitehead integrates aspects of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, unveiling the town’s government-funded research project that was being conducted unbeknownst to the fugitives living there. Upon learning the town’s intentions Cora hopped on the next train which took her to North Carolina. There, Whitehead incorporates the hangings of witches in Salem Witches trials into Cora’s experience in a conductor’s cramped attic, an experience similar to that of Anne Frank’s, where she learned from watching the town’s Friday Festivals that “in North Carolina the negro race did not exist except at the ends of ropes” (Whitehead 156). By exposing readers to such a horror in a more northern state, Whitehead refutes the
In writing his novel, Whitehead dared to extend beyond the boundaries of the preset genre of historical fiction, incorporating elements of fantasy without discrediting his subject matter. His incredibly unique style of writing allows his readers to automatically buy into the authenticity of this genre-bending slave narrative without hesitation. As readers embark on their own journey through the novel, they are first introduced to Ajarry, who they soon learn is Cora’s grandmother. Ajarry’s chapter serves as a prologue to portray the gruesome conditions of the Middle Passage, which simultaneously allows readers to …show more content…
The metaphoric railway transforms readers into fugitive slaves, transporting them from South Carolina to North Carolina to Tennessee to Indian, providing readers with an understanding of how each state execute slavery differently. With each new state, Whitehead was able to incorporate a different aspect of the world’s history into Cora’s slave narrative. As the Underground Railroad leads Cora and Caesar to a town in South Carolina that seems to have taken a benevolent approach to the concept of slavery, Whitehead integrates aspects of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, unveiling the town’s government-funded research project that was being conducted unbeknownst to the fugitives living there. Upon learning the town’s intentions Cora hopped on the next train which took her to North Carolina. There, Whitehead incorporates the hangings of witches in Salem Witches trials into Cora’s experience in a conductor’s cramped attic, an experience similar to that of Anne Frank’s, where she learned from watching the town’s Friday Festivals that “in North Carolina the negro race did not exist except at the ends of ropes” (Whitehead 156). By exposing readers to such a horror in a more northern state, Whitehead refutes the