Topic 7: In light of the course themes, engage with one or more related themes in the novel. Feel free to select from the list below or identify your own. (Brutality & Tragedy)
- How does Colson Whitehead convey themes of brutality and tragedy?
- What types of brutality are inflicted?
- Who/What experience or cause tragedy within the novel?
- Are there parallels between brutality and tragedy within the novel? If so how is it depicted?
- Thesis: Colson Whitehead uses the uses graphic experiences/storytelling to convey the themes of brutality and tragedy.
Explanation: This novel was a great way to see different forms of racism and experiences of “brutality”. However, it was really hard to settle on a topic. I decided to talk both how the author uses imagery to convey the gruesome visuals of slavery. I would want to delve deeper into how the actual system to slavery functions within the plantation and how some slaves can perceive other slaves as below them or lack remorse for one another, which is brutal in its own way. I feel like topic 7 holds me with the least literary limits; allowing me to broaden or narrow my topic to fit the task.
Possible Works to be Cited:
-Speight, S. L. (2007). Internalized Racism: One More Piece of the Puzzle. The Counseling Psychologist, 35(1), 126–134.
-Vásquez, Juan Gabriel. “In Colson Whitehead’s Latest, the Underground Railroad Is More Than a Metaphor.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Aug. 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/books/review/colson-whitehead-underground-railroad.html
-Nordlinger, Jay. “The Underground Railroad: A Problematic Prizewinner of a Novel.” National Review, National Review, 12 Apr. 2017, https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/04/colson-whitehead-underground-railroad- mixes-greatness-moral-judgment/.
-“Colson Whitehead Still Feeling Effects of Writing Pulitzer-Winning The Underground Railroad.” The Pulitzer Prizes, 12 Feb. 2018, https://www.pulitzer.org/event/colson- whitehead-still-feeling-effects-writing-pulitzer-winning-underground-railroad.
-“History in general, and the history of slavery, is not taught very well,” Whitehead says. “The book does lay out the brutality of the system in sort of a very matter-of-fact way, so if you haven’t read about slavery in a while or aren’t acquainted with how it actually worked, then the book is quite eye-opening and startling.”
– “The book is brutal, and it’s brutal because it’s realistic, and it’s brutal because I want to testify for the people who went through it in any small way I can.”
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