Colson Whitehead's Portrayal of Slavery in The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead depicts slavery in his book The Underground Railroad as it existed throughout the globe, but particularly in the United States. Two central figures called Cora and Caesar are at the center of the narrative. Cora is important to the plot because of how her difficulties are portrayed. The phrase "Underground Railroad" refers to the real railroad that slaves used to flee their masters. The narrative describes Cora and Caesar's attempt to escape a Georgian plantation or land. This essay will compare Whitehead's portrayal of slavery to those of other writers, including Harriet Jacobs, Solomon Northrup, New York Burning, Fredrick Douglass, and American Yawp.
Analysis
Various believe that Whitehead's work is both brilliant and deceptively simple. The story can be mistaken as a real account of slavery experiences. This is not the case because the story is basically fictional but with borrowed facts. Stories by Harriet Jacobs and Solomon Northrup account for actual experiences. The accounts show a close similarity with Whitehead's story but since his is fictional, he has liberty to make the story more interesting. In his acknowledgements, mentions a list of scholars that he borrowed some ideas from. These following are some of the scholars; Eric Foner, Fergus Bordewich, Nathan Huggins, and Stephen Jay Gould. He mentions that he used their works as primary sources especially narratives by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. These sources make his story really similar with actual experiences of racism, slavery, escape attempts, and abolition of slavery. The result is what scholars have referred to as lyrical and imaginative story (Brown et al., 225-226).
Whitehead's Unearthing of Misunderstandings
Through the use of actual experiences and facts on slavery, Whitehead uses his story to unearth some of the many misunderstandings regarding what actually happened during the American slave trade. Students' imaginations have been struck by other creative incorporations such as the question of what if the Underground Railroad was a literal underground railroad. Such creativeness is what has made Whitehead's work more compared to normal narratives of slavery.
Whitehead's Speculative and Ironical Perspective
It is also true to say that Whitehead's work is significantly speculative and an inversion of reality as compared to other works studied before in class. The main reason for this is that there are significant misunderstandings regarding the white America's perception of slavery like for instance the issues of the treatment of the slaves and wage theft. Many believe that Irish people were treated in a similar way as the black people. This kind of misunderstanding comes about given that the book is fictional and depends on facts illustrated by other scholars.
Moreover, Whitehead seems to also have a challenge depicting the slavery especially regarding black male experiences. His works seems to bring out an ironical perspective given that amount of speculative touches that have been thought to bring about the sense of liberation. His approach has been thought to be a departure from the other novelists especially the black American novelists. In one of his interviews, Whitehead states that his work needed some sense of realism. He states that because his work was on a serious issue of race, he needed to be comprehensive in his depictions. Whitehead tried very hard to avoid being too speculative. His ironical approach enables the reader to relate better and not get incited. The other narratives learned in class are quite explicit in the description of the slavery experiences and the readers cannot help being affected by the associated emotions.
Whitehead's Balancing Act
Various scholars have pointed out that Whitehead was also facing a challenge achieving his obligation to present historically accurate description of slavery experiences. This is a challenge to him mainly because he also has to include the sly wit that will give his story the desired charm. In order to achieve this, Whitehead uses punctilious and emphatic sobriety to dilute the Irony and hence managing to incorporate wit and accuracy. Irony in the story is hard to achieve mainly because the story is a depiction of the struggles of black Americans. Plain irony can therefore be misunderstood as ridicule.
Comparison with Harriet Jacobs
In her story, Harriet Jacobs describes her story on slavery and her actual experiences. She describes how slave masters abused the women slaves had had children with them but no one would say anything to them. The slaves themselves were away of the consequences of any kind of allusion.
Whitehead's Diverse Cultural Appetite
Unlike the other authors, Whitehead is seen to have quite a diverse cultural appetite. This can be seen through his description of the American and black Americans relationship. Moreover, his work has been found to elicit the kind of skepticism that is seen in the works of Elission. His is more propulsive and redolent and with a lot of allegories.
Whitehead's Understanding of Institutions and Change
Whitehead seems to agree that institutions offer human interaction a stable structure and that change is inevitable. Change in institutions is brought about by the change in perceptions of economic and political ideas in the best institutional framework. He states that cognitive factors and inefficient flow of information affect the rational decision making through the model of individual behavior. He further acknowledges that short time individual decisions also have a role in the structuring of human institutions. Unlike the other authors such as Fredrick Douglass and the American Yawp, he introduces more complex factors that affect human interactions and other contributing factors. They study the contractual arrangements through an increased cost of transaction. All these authors agree that formal institutions are developed with an aim of mainly serving the interest of the individuals with the power to enact the necessary structures and enforcing the interactions. Through his studies, North Douglas establishes that individual behavior plays a major role in the development of the institutions. He states that there are theoretic assumption but asserts that these assumption do not necessarily account for individual motivation or the way they relate with the environment around them. He states that in cases whereby expression of norms and ideologies are low, institutions are weak. He also mentions that incomplete information is largely caused by the disparity between material reality and individuals' subjective processing of the environment. Whitehead seems to have developed his story with these facts in mind.
Social Interaction and the Struggle Against Slavery
New people, new communities and new societies normally arise from activities such as social interaction. All the scholars studied in class explain how social interaction triggered various changes and among them is the struggle against slavery and its eventual abolition. The black communities were unfortunate victims of ignorance exhibited through slavery. Some of them tried to get away from oppressive communities just like Cora did. As time went by and the ignorance was done away with the African-Americans begun to be integrated into the American society. They now represent the rich diversity of the American society. The African-American chose a quest of severing their ties with their traditional communities and setting out for better lives with new opportunities and new experiences, this is when they migrated into various parts of the world (Bos 1850-2001).
Conclusion
All the stories of learned through the course on black American presents students with a chance to look back into the past and trace the history of human interaction and how such history has helped shape today. It also enables them to understand the diverse and unique contributions various communities had in that course. Whitehead and the rest managed to make close, others actual, depictions of that journey. According a study over 35 million African-Americans are direct descendants of the slave victims. The migrations into America have re-shaped America and the general western hemisphere. These descendants are from the various African communities whose genetic composition they still share. These African-Americans now represent the diverse population of the United States. The country has in turn embraced the diversity and the different heritages that constitute the millions of women and men who are on a constant move into better lives through employment and education and making the future generations better.
Works Cited
Brown, Lois, and Milton C. Sernett. "Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History." (2009): 225-226.
Bos, Brittney. "Forging Iconographies and Casting Colonialism: Monuments and Memories in Ontario, 1850-2001." (2016).
