144 pages 4 hours read

Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016

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Essay Topics

1.

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

2.

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. 

3.

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.