underground railroad essay questions

The Underground Railroad

By colson whitehead, the underground railroad essay questions.

In your opinion, why does Colson Whitehead make the Underground Railroad a literal railroad? What function does this play in the novel?

The physical reality of a literal railroad amplifies the colossal effort of those who used the real Underground Railroad. Cora dwells on the immensity of the labor it must have took to build the railroad. Thousands of former slaves undertook back-breaking work, carving tunnels out of mountains, digging holes in the ground underneath all of America. The labor of others, she thinks, is redemptive; with it, they have been transformed, and without it, she would never be free. Thus the transformation of the Railroad into a literal engine gives Whitehead the opportunity to directly commemorate the courage of the real men and women in history who operated the network and used it to flee.

How do different characters regard the American Dream in the novel?

For Ridgeway, both the founding principle and the driving engine of America are comprised of a simple principle: if you steal property and keep it, it is yours. This brutal, stable reality is the American Dream. In contrast, Elijah Lander describes the American Dream is a shifting uncertainty, in fact a grand “delusion.” These are perhaps the two opposite poles of belief in the central myths of America. Perhaps Whitehead's point is made by the protagonist, Cora, who oscillates somewhere in the middle. Sometimes she she thinks America is just “a ghost in the darkness,” nothing real at all. At other times, she is unsure, “stirred” by the idea of expansion and progress. In the end, she is aligned with those Americans seeking to cash in on the American Dream, moving out west to reap the rewards of the frontier.

What effect does the structure of the novel's chapters have on the development of the plot?

While being transported in chains through Tennessee, Cora reflects on how the peculiar institution has made her a keeper of lists. In a column in her head, she logs everyone who has impacted her journey, honoring them even as she must move on without them. The novel's structure functions in much the same way. Whitehead alternates between chapters depicting Cora's story, and chapters telling the stories of secondary characters. The first such chapter, giving context for Ajarry's life, functions as an exposition and mood-setting for the entire novel. Later, several characters are featured after their deaths—for example, Ethel, Caesar, and Mabel—and so their chapters function as memorials. Other characters—Ridgeway and Stevens, for instance—provide ideological counterpoints to Cora's story, juxtaposing her struggle with the ideas of white supremacist America. In total, these chapters form a list of characters who have impacted Cora, mimicking the list she keeps in her head.

What role does the character of Mabel have on Cora's story?

In some ways, Mabel is the driving force behind Cora's story. When Mabel escapes the Randall plantation, she leaves behind a vegetable garden that reminds Cora of the promise of freedom. Cora grows to resent her mother for leaving her behind to suffer. Throughout the novel, as she makes her way through a hellish landscape in search of the freedom she believes her mother attained, she pictures Mabel in freedom, perhaps in Canada. Cora's struggle is shaped by Mabel in another way too: Ridgeway, the slave catcher, takes it as a personal insult that he never found and recaptured Mabel. This old grievance drives him to capture Cora at all costs. More than just his job, his pursuit of Cora is a personal and thus much more dangerous vendetta.

In an ironic twist at the end of the novel, however, the narrator reveals that Mabel never made it to freedom. She died on her way back to Cora, in the swamp just outside the Randall plantation. Thus the driving impetus of Cora's story falls apart, and it turns out Cora made her escape all on her own.

How does Ridgeway's character develop over the course of the book?

In the third chapter, Ridgeway's back story describes him as a formidable opponent. Tall, cold-hearted, and extremely violent, he makes the perfect antagonist. As time goes on, however, cracks begin to show in his steely persona. Cora learns the odd story of how he recognized a kindred spirit in a young black slave, Homer, whom he freed and befriended. The relationship between the ten-year-old boy and Ridgeway remains an enigma throughout the novel, but there seems to be clear affection there. Thus the slave catcher is not as hard-hearted as he initially seemed. Ridgeway is then severely diminished by the confrontation with Royal and Red in Tennessee. From that point on, his pursuit of Cora borders on the obsession of a mentally unstable man. When he finally catches up to her for the last time in Indiana, he seems unkempt and disheveled. Thus over the course of the novel, Ridgeway's relentless pursuit of Cora appears to weaken him. He eventually unravels while Cora continues on to freedom.

The Underground Railroad Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Underground Railroad is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Colorism is expressed through the differences in the way that those with lighter skin were treated differently than those with darker skin. Black people with lighter skin were afforded more opportunities, and they were often able to "pass" as...

What are the three cities a former slave escaping from Nashville might pass through to get to Canada?

Though I cannot give you the names of the exact cities, slaves escaping by route of the Underground Railroad from Nashville went through the states of Kentucky and Ohio.

What does fugitive mean?

A fugitive is "a person who has escaped from a place or is in hiding, especially to avoid arrest or persecution."

Study Guide for The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad study guide contains a biography of Colson Whitehead, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Underground Railroad
• The Underground Railroad Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.

• Delusion and Reality in The Underground Railroad
• Past and Future Blues: A Comparison of Historical Themes in 'Sonny's Blues' and 'The Underground Railroad'
• Rewriting the Past
• Underground Railroad: The Railroad To The North As A Metaphor For Freedom

Lesson Plan for The Underground Railroad

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Underground Railroad
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Underground Railroad Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Underground Railroad

• Introduction
• Literary influences and parallels
• Television adaptation

The Underground Railroad

Colson whitehead, everything you need for every book you read..

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Underground Railroad: Introduction

The underground railroad: plot summary, the underground railroad: detailed summary & analysis, the underground railroad: themes, the underground railroad: quotes, the underground railroad: characters, the underground railroad: symbols, the underground railroad: theme wheel, brief biography of colson whitehead.

Historical Context of The Underground Railroad

Other books related to the underground railroad.

• Full Title: The Underground Railroad
• When Written: 2011-2016
• Where Written: New York, USA
• When Published: 2016
• Literary Period: 21st century African-American historical fiction
• Genre: Neo-slave narrative
• Setting: Several states in America in the year 1850, including Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Indiana
• Climax: When Elijah Lander delivers his speech and it is interrupted by a white gang who destroy Valentine farm
• Antagonist: Arnold Ridgeway
• Point of View: Third-person narrator

Extra Credit for The Underground Railroad

Coming to the small screen. In March 2017 Amazon announced the production of a mini-series based on The Underground Railroad , directed by Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins.

Real pieces of history. The first four runaway slave ads featured in the novel are taken word-for-word from real 19th century newspapers. The only one that Whitehead wrote himself is the last one, Cora’s.

The Underground Railroad

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

What is the symbolic significance of depicting the Underground Railroad as an actual rail line? Use specific quotes to support your analysis. 

Choose one of the book’s major settings (the Randall plantation in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, the Valentine farm in Indiana). Use and cite primary and secondary historical sources to compare the book’s depictions with historical record. 

What is the book’s central message about the character and origins of the American nation? Use direct quotes and analysis to support your position.

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THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD Book Club Questions and Reading Guide

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Looking for The Underground Railroad book club questions and a reading guide for your next meeting? Look no further.

The Underground Railroad Reading Guide

But first, what’s this book about and why should we read it?

The Underground Railroad is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel and New York Times best seller. It also won the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. It is also an Oprah Book Club pick . Note: this post may contain spoilers.

The Underground Railroad  Summary

This novel by Colson Whitehead follows the path of Cora, a third-generation slave, as she uses a literal (in this world) underground railroad to escape slavery in Georgia.

She’s an outcast on the plantation. Caesar, a new slave from Virginia, asks her to run away with him. At first Cora hesitates, but after another slave is caught and brutally tortured for trying to escape, she decides to leave with him. It’s then she discovers that the underground railroad isn’t a metaphor, but a series of tunnels and trains below the earth.

The reader follows Cora along her perilous route to in pursuit of freedom as she continuously tries to evade capture from a determined slave catcher.

Themes in The Underground Railroad

Before we get to the book club questions, let’s talk about some prominent themes in The Underground Railroad. One of the most obvious themes is that of survival. Cora’s grandmother, Ajarry, is stolen from Africa and passes on her desire to survive to Cora’s mother, Mabel. Cora’s own journey north is fraught with obstacles that take great physical and mental fortitude to survive.

Another theme throughout the novel is that of fear, especially fueled by brutality. This starts on the plantation with the slave owners, but even between the enslaved people on the plantation with how Cora has to destroy the dog house built on her mother’s plot of land. This continues with violence throughout the book, but also on the settlement in South Carolina where doctors are sterilizing women without their knowledge and intentionally infecting men with syphilis to “study” how the disease progresses.

The Underground Railroad Book Club Questions

Looking for more general The Underground Railroad book club questions? We’ve got 40 to start with.

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Abolitionism — The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad

• Categories: Abolitionism African American

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Published: Jan 15, 2019

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The Underground Railroad (novel) Essay Topics & Writing Assignments

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the tone, mood, and narrative style in The Underground Railroad. How does the author develop the tone and mood of the narrative in the first chapters? From what tense and perspective is the narrative related? Why do you think the author has chosen this narrative style?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze and discuss Cora as the protagonist of The Underground Railroad. What characteristics does Cora exhibit when her character is introduced? What makes Cora a "stray"? How does Cora's character develop over the course of the story?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze and discuss the character of Caesar in The Underground Railroad. Why does Caesar choose Cora as the slave he wants to run away with? How did Caesar learn to read and write? What do Caesar's actions reveal about his character?

Essay Topic 4

Discuss the portrayal of the Underground Railroad in the novel. Why do you think the...

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