by Colson Whitehead
Copyright (c) 2016
I picked up this book because it won a Pulitzer for Whitehead and because it had the recommendation of Barack Obama, who reads widely. I was not let down. Its picturesque depiction of slavery and of slavery’s effects brought this historical event to life to me. Further, Whitehead vividly shows how the human heart – even those from “uncivilized” Africa – longs universally for freedom. I read it cover-to-cover in less than 36 hours’ time.
The story trails a slave named Cora from her plantation in the deep American South (Georgia). She escapes to the “Underground Railroad,” which in Whitehead’s twist of fantasy, is an actual railroad in tunnels under the ground. Like Gulliver in Gulliver’s Travels, Cora visits different places on the railroad as she travels to the north. Each stop has its own culture, its own wars over slavery, and its own evils. She must think – think! – and solve the fundamental problem with each culture in order to continue her escape to true freedom. In the end, Cora realizes that the challenges will never end, even after escape, and healing must come on its own terms.
I realized how freedom and slavery comes in many forms throughout one’s life. What at first seems good can turn into another prison if one is not careful. Nonetheless, the human, the everywoman/everyman, must take steps forward so as not to perish along the way. One might lose dear ones along the way, but the journey must continue.