Instructions and General Reactions

Each entry, including this one, asks a different question. The minimum expectation is that you respond to each one once, though you should do more than that. Ideally, you'll provide some original feedback and then also comment on the opinions of others. The discussion will set us up for the first weeks of school.

For this entry, I'd just like to hear your initial reactions. You don't have to go into great depth. Save that for the more important topics below. Just let me know what you think, in general.

If you have questions, feel free to post them here, too.

To comment just click on the "comment" link below. Make sure to sign your name or sign into your Google account before you submit it, so we know who you are. Note: You will not see your comments immediately as I will approve them as they come in first. 

Conflicts

1. Who or what are the main antagonists? What are the main conflicts? How are they depicted? Are they resolved? If so, how? If not, why not?

2. What are some other, minor conflicts? Why are they included? Are they resolved?

Characters

Let's start light ... other than Cora, who is your favorite character?  Why?

Other than Ridgeway, who is your least favorite character?  Why?

Be sure to provide textual support with citations.

Also, consider why Whitehead depicted his characters in these ways.   

Style

What characterizes Whitehead's style? What distinguishes his writing style from the style of others?

Provide examples with citations to support your point. Feel free to compare his style to the style of other authors you know.

Interview Quotes:

From the New York Times: “I went back and reread ‘100 Years of Solitude,’ and it made me think about what it would be like if I didn’t turn the dial up to 10, but kept the fantasy much more matter-of-fact,” he said. “I wanted it to be like the slave narratives I read, where you get a very matter-of-fact contemplation of all these weird and horrible things that keep happening.”

Symbols and Allusions

General Questions:

Who or what are important symbols and/or allusions in the novel? 

How do they function or what is their purpose?

Interview Quotes:

1.  In his interview with NPR (see link to the right), Whitehead says, "So I kept thinking about it. And I thought, well, what if every state our hero went through - as he or she ran North - was a different state of American possibility? So Georgia has one sort of take on America and North Carolina - sort of like Gulliver's Travels. The book is rebooting every time the person goes to a different state].

How is Gulliver's Travels similar to the novel?  Why might Whitehead use a popular book from the 1700s as a model for his book?  

  

Motifs and Themes

General Questions:

What are the most important motifs of the novel? Where do they occur and recur? You have to provide some direct quotations for this one. Name the motif and then provide a few examples.

A motif is almost always used to convey a major or minor theme. Based on this fact, what theme or idea is conveyed through your motif? What does it say about life? What does it say about America? What is Whitehead criticizing or commenting on? Etc. 

Interview Quotes:

1.  In his interview with NPR (link to the right), Whitehead says, "All the things that the people in The Underground Railroad are struggling with, have parallels, echoes today."  

2.  Later in the NPR interview, he says, "When I saw "Night Of The Living Dead," I saw it when I was very young and I was struck by the fact that there was a black protagonist. He's the one sane person in a story, and I hadn't seen a lot of movies with black heroes at that point. And so I think that stayed with me over the years. There seemed to be a way in which a black person trying to navigate the world as white mobs are trying to tear him limb from limb was a compelling story and also a way of commenting on America. And so that's in "Zone One," And I think it's definitely in a more overt way in The Underground Railroad."