Whitehead's The Underground Road, An Outline

Most school-children first learn about American slavery through history textbooks which contain dry facts. Although children are learning about history, they are still lacking another essential component. That is, they have not understood the personal experiences that slaves have been through. One way to include slaves’ personal experiences is by creating a story based on history known as historical fiction. Writing through such a genre allows the author enough wiggle room to add fictional events and characters that would provoke the audience’s emotions. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is a story that is believed to do just that--instill emotions into the author’s audience. Although Whitehead’s novel explains American slavery in heavy detail, it proves to contain numerous inconsistencies of history along the path of the storyline. In particular, …show more content…
However, these inconsistencies do not change the outcomes such as the direction of travel, level of danger, character experiences and emotions, and the purpose; rather, fiction is utilized to highlight the message the author is trying to convey by personal experiences belonging to fictional characters. As a result, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead goes into more detail than do non-fictional accounts, allowing the author to better teach his audience regarding the calamities engulfing American slaves during the 1800s and to better avoid future generations from treating others the same way these slaves were treated. The main obvious inconsistency in The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead to historical non-fiction accounts is the literal usage of the metaphor ‘Underground Railroad;’ this literal use is important because it allows Whitehead to sharpen the message he is attempting to deliver to his