The Underground Railroad Rhetorical Analysis Essay

In the fictional novel, The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead writes about slavery and it’s unfortunate/ dishonorable history. He includes the racial discrimination against African Americans to show the past and present issues with racism in America. Cora, the protagonist as well as other slaves from the text are utilized as symbols for mistreatment and injustice done by whites to African Americans. Whitehead’s choice of making the underground a literal train is very important throughout the book because each stop in the track symbolizes several different issues that whitehead wants to address. The metaphor of Whitehead using the underground railroad as a literal train serves as a track and each stop that Cora ends up symbolizes an issue as well as path to a better future.

In the first chapter of the Underground Railroad, “Georgia” Cora is introduced along with other slaves from the plantation. Whitehead mentions the hardships as well as the unmentioned truths of the century, while providing us with an imitation of the past through contemporary time ambience. When Coras’ inherited family doghouse was being destroyed, she was furious, it meant a lot to her because it was a part of her family, something she will forever cherish. This chapter begins the underground railroads literal path to freedom and justice in Coras life as it relates to current social issues. In an NPR podcast with whitehead, he stated” the book is rebooting every time the person goes to another state” (npr podcast Whitehead 2016). One of the stops Cora goes after she escaped was to South Carolina, where there was a seemingly progressive government devoted to black uplift and other social programs. So it was a different surrounding for her she is not used to having an education and being a “free slave”. Alex arcos mentioned in week 3F discussion post that even though Cora had very little to no space to move in her attic she still considered herself a free slave because she did not have a master, it’s insane how much society’s expectations played a big role in dictating others actions, because even Cora was being limited on what she was able to do in South Carolina the fact that she didn’t have a master made her adapt and feel like she was free. When Cora decides to escape again and take the underground railroad to North Carolina, it is a different surrounding, North Carolina was a very open about its intentions, they would linch African Americans when committing genocide, they had a white supremacist ideal. He did it to emphasize the pit stops in life, each one of the trains symbolizes each new step in Coras trek.

Cora’s life in South Carolina consisted of her isolating herself from society. Cora along with Caesar were given false identities in order for them to live safely in South Carolina. In a way Cora gets to experience life as a “free person”. Whitehead clarifys Coras doctors visit as being an uncomfortable, tense experience due to the intense, both physical and mental inspection given by the doctor. It wasn’t right for Cora to be treated in such way because she didn’t seek that type of treatment in any manner. She visited the doctors for a second time, and the doctor Stevens, was well aware she was raped yet he still recommended birth control as an option since he stated she “had intimate relations” (Whitehead 113). The fact that he totally disregarded her actual situation and comparing her wounding mistreatment to “intimate relations”  is an example of racism regarding the blacks, since he disregards the abuse she experienced, he instead decides to tell Cora “sterilization is necessary for some in the state, [for] colored women who have already birthed more than two children, in the name of population control, for the “mentally unfit”, as well as the “habitual criminals”(Whitehead 113.) Whitehead mentioned the forced sterilization process of African American females as a form of population control of “colored people,” in reference to the eugenics movement. The eugenics movement, which was the belief and practice “that aims at improving the genetic quality of the human population, played a significant role in the history and culture of the United States prior to its involvement in World War II.” (Farber Steven 2008). Whitehead uses the eugenics movement as a way to show that sterilization was used as a form to control the future. They were trying to control the amount of babies women gave birth to. The eugenics movement consisted on “applying principles of genetics and heredity for the purpose of improving the human race,” which focused on eliminating negative and “undesirable” traits, with which no surprise, “were concentrated in poor, uneducated and minority populations” (Rivard and Bouche 2014). Cora notices her roommates were also being sterilized without their consent as a part of the eugenics movement in hope to reduce the black population. Alejandra Arcos stated in week 4M discussion, that the “Tuskegee Syphilis experiment consisted of doctors observing the progression of syphilis upon the colored people. She mentioned the whites were using the colored people for their own personal gain and didn’t worry about the suffering and consequences that the colored people were being put through, while still being controlled by the whites. I agree with Alejandra on this because the African Americans were basically being used as guinea pigs by the whites instead of actually trying to benefit or help them. This goes back to Whitehead using the topic of eugenics in his novel by comparing that with some of the main issues of contemporary time. For example, the human-gene editing and how it could open a window to current day issues with eugenics. Human-gene editing consists of making changes to a specific part of a genome. It can “approach diseases in new ways, modifying a patient’s DNA to treat or cure a disease caused by a genetic mutation” (Nancy Leys) but it is not morally right because humans are genetically modified in a way that is acceptable for society.

Get Help With Your Essay

If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!
Find out more about our Essay Writing Service

In the beginning of “Indiana” chapter, Cora’s acquaintance with her classroom is illustrated by Whitehead as “Georgina’s classroom revealed the smallness of her accomplishments. She didn’t recognize the Declaration of Independence the day she joined them in the meeting house. The children’s pronunciation was crisp and mature, so distant from Michael’s stiff recitations back on Randall” (Whitehead 243). Cora takes the underground railroad and continues her journey onto Indiana where she starts a new beginning on a farm named Valentine. Valentine farm was a place where the black African American prior slaves join together as a community, Cora liked valentine she felt like it was a place where she adapted and began to feel belonged and wanted. When reading the beginning of the “Indiana” chapter, the first thing that came to mind is one of my own experiences, on my first day of 1^st grade in America. It was much different from what I was used to in Mexico. Everyone knew how to speak english as well as the pledge of allegiance which was part of the daily routine in school except for me. I would have a hard time adapting and making friends because I was viewed as an outsider, therefore I felt like I didn’t belong. Around the time in which Whitehead published The Underground Railroad, the U.S presidential elections were in progress. With the controversial topics of immigration from trump, and his racist thoughts and actions, we can conclude that Whitehead is trying to send a message to his audience about the way in which people emigrating to the U.S might feel and how they learn to adapt in a world that is still cruel and dehumanizing just as African American would in times of slavery. As I was reading the discussion posts from week 4M I came across Oscar Ho’s post and liked what he said about The declaration of independence and how it “serves as a symbol of irony for the people that are taught the American dream and understand that there are difficulties that impede the possibility of achieving that dream.” I agree with his statement on how the declaration serves as a symbol of irony due to the fact that there are different sides based on their social placement in society. The ones who are wealthy can go about their goals in an easier way because they don’t hold as many obstacles and setbacks as those who are oppressed.

 In conclusion, Whitehead controls the historical record to deliberate about the narratives in history which are in connection with the current time frame that is not always taken into consideration. Whitehead incorporates topics concerning historical myths and imagination as a way to manifest the conjecture whites progress to build a home. He additionally incorporates a figure of speech known as metaphor to mock the “American Dream” and its unobtainability for African Americans. The author includes such choice of rhetoric in order to enlighten Americans to stand up and take to account the duties of the corruption that still goes on in the U.S as well

the progression of medicine in which once was a way whites tried to take over and decrease African American population.

Works Cited

• “Colson Whitehead’s ‘Underground Railroad’ Is A Literal Train To Freedom.” NPR, NPR, 8 Aug. 2016, www.npr.org/2016/08/08/489168232/colson-whiteheads-underground-railroad-is-a-literal-train-to-freedom.
• Farber, Steven A. “U.S. Scientists’ Role in the Eugenics Movement (1907-1939): a Contemporary Biologist’s Perspective.” Zebrafish, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Dec. 2008, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2757926/.
• Whitehead, Colson. The Underground Railroad: a Novel. Anchor Books, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018
• Stepan, Nancy Leys. “Race and Gender: The Role of Analogy in Science.” Isis, vol. 77, no. 2, 1986, pp. 261–277., doi:10.1086/354130.
• Rivard, Laura, and Teryn Bouche. “America’s Hidden History: The Eugenics Movement.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 2014,