This study guide contains the following sections: This detailed literature summary also contains Quotes and a Free Quiz on After waiting in the dark, Cora realizes that on the other side of the door Sam’s house is on fire. The text alludes to Ethel’s suppressed lesbian identity throughout her life, but Ethel marries Martin and they have a daughter. Cora’s time with the Wells’ is spent as a prisoner in their home. Just as Lander’s speech is coming to an end, the meeting is disrupted by Ridgeway and a gang of white men. The heat in the attic is so intense that Cora sometimes passes out, and she is given only very small amounts of water and food. Interspersed in the narrative are chapters that follow other characters in the same way the … The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Whitehead, Colson. Bessie sometimes takes the children to visit their father at his office in the Griffin Building, a 12-story building with an elevator. They travel through towns struck by wildfires and yellow fever. One night, there is a dormitory social at which Cora wears a pretty new dress and chats happily with Caesar. However, on her way back to Randall she is bitten by a snake and dies, her body swallowed up by the swamp. There is disagreement on the farm about the best way to advance black progress: gradually or inclusively. Alone on the plantation, Cora proves her independence and determination by protecting Ajarry’s legacy, the vegetable plot, from the intrusions of another slave, Blake, and his dog. Ridgeway is tortured by his failure to capture Mabel and he swears he will track down Cora in her place. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. They travel in a rickety car to South Carolina. Slave Narratives and the "Real" Underground Railroad, Read the Study Guide for The Underground Railroad…, Delusion and Reality in The Underground Railroad, Past and Future Blues: A Comparison of Historical Themes in 'Sonny's Blues' and 'The Underground Railroad', View the lesson plan for The Underground Railroad…, View Wikipedia Entries for The Underground Railroad…. A brief chapter tells the story of Ethel’s life. Ethel is a nervous, reluctant bystander until her chance to play missionary when Cora falls ill.

Soon, Cora is given a new job as a “type” in a museum.

Homer is a 10-year-old black boy who serves as Ridgeway’s driver and bookkeeper. Grieving the loss of Royal and her community, Cora leads Ridgeway and Homer to the station. In the altercation, Cora kills one of them, a teenage boy, in self-defense.

I'm sorry, this is a short-answer forum designed for text specific questions. There, Cora and Caesar are given new names and identities, and start new lives in which they become increasingly comfortable, refusing a series of opportunities to take the underground railroad even further towards the North, and freedom. The slaves celebrate Old Jockey’s birthday and Cora tries to protect a boy named Chester from a beating at the hands of their master, Terrance Randall. Doubleday, 2016. Do they deserve to be called heroes? When Mabel disappeared, she gave no indication to Cora that she was leaving. He was hired by the older Randall to find Mabel when she ran away years ago, but failed. Shortly after, a group of pig hunters finds them in the woods. It is eventually revealed that Bessie is, in fact, Cora, who (along with Caesar) assumed a fake identity in South Carolina with the assistance of a white saloon owner and underground railroad agent named Sam. She takes several husbands and gives birth to a handful of children, but none survive except one named Mabel. Indeed, the re-imagining of history where the Underground Railroad is an actual railroad is a great idea in itself. Meanwhile, other residents are being forcibly sterilized in order to cull the black population. Cora manages to escape, taking the underground railroad to North Carolina, where she is given refuge with Martin and Ethel Wells. They form a mob and ransack the farm, killing many members of the community, including Royal. Before the feast, Cora talks to her friend Lovey, a kind and simple young woman who—unlike Cora—enjoys dancing. The Underground Railroad (novel) Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to She is once again taking classes, and she shares a cabin with a woman named Sybil and Sybil’s daughter, Molly, with whom Cora has an affectionate bond. Lovey, Cora’s friend, suspects they plan to escape and insists on going with them. Just before the feast, a young man named Caesar pulls Cora aside and asks her to run away with him, an idea Cora dismisses as ludicrous.

Cora, meanwhile, steps onto the handcar waiting in the station and begins slowly conveying herself to freedom, swinging at the tunnel with a pickax as she goes. The farm is home to numerous freed black people and escapees. In the next chapter, Cora travels on the Underground Railroad to North Carolina. Chapters inserted throughout the narrative explore the lives, backgrounds, and fates of several characters in the same way as the book’s first character explored Ajarry’s life. One evening, Ridgeway gives Cora a new dress to wear and takes her out for dinner. The Question and Answer section for The Underground Railroad is a great Fletcher drives them in his cart, covered by a blanket, to the home of the station agent, Lumbly. Just as they get to the stairs, though, Cora pulls her chains around Ridgway’s neck, which causes him to fall down the stairs. Eventually, the farm is attacked by a band of slave catchers, and again Cora is taken prisoner by Ridgeway. Cora and the Underground Railroad agents, including one named Royal, travel on the Railroad to a farm in Indiana owned by John Valentine, a free black man. John tells Cora that he feels a sense of duty to help all black people, who he believes must look out for one another. They shoot Lander and Royal and drag off many others. The narrative jumps into the future, with Cora now living on Valentine farm, a free black community in Indiana.

Ridgeway takes Cora with him. There, she makes a new life for herself on the farm of the Valentine family, a farm where a large number of similarly escaped slaves are making similarly new lives. The two set off in the night, and they soon realize that they are being followed by Lovey. Caesar enjoys his work in a factory. How was Cora's identity portrayed throughout the book? After the feast, the slaves dance and play music, but they’re interrupted by James and Terrance Randall, the brothers who own the plantation. Ridgeway is the son of a blacksmith, Ridgeway Sr. who believed in a “Great Spirit” uniting all living things. Under this scheme, Cora learns to read and write as she works first as a nanny for a family called the Andersons and then as a living model in an exhibit on American history in a government-funded museum. Cora falls ill after months of hiding in the attic. Struggling with distance learning? The farm is run by John Valentine, a white-passing freeborn black man, and his wife, Gloria. This Study Guide consists of approximately 65 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - Arnold Ridgeway, the slave catcher who dedicates himself to finding Cora, has been a slave catcher since age 14. Royal dies in Cora’s arms while telling her with a smile to escape via the underground railroad. Elijah Lander, a biracial abolitionist and rhetorician, gives the next speech. Why or Why Not? By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our. This time she pushes the lever herself.

The use of the terms “colored” and “nigger” in the book and in the analysis reflects the language of the time: in other words, the terms in the book are historically appropriate, and are used throughout this analysis with the same intention of accuracy. Cora travels through Tennessee with Ridgeway, Ridgeway’s accomplices Homer and Boseman, and a captured runaway, Jasper, who won’t stop singing hymns. Martin shows Cora the Freedom Trail, a seemingly endless line of lynched black bodies left hanging on display, and he explains that black people are not allowed in North Carolina anymore. It was longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. The book is largely narrated from her perspective, as she escapes her life as a slave on a Georgia plantation and makes... Why do you think people were willing to risk their lives to work on the Underground Railroad? Sam’s house is burned to the ground. Eventually, Cora and Caesar make it to the first stop on the underground railroad, a sub-surface train network that takes them into the first stop on their escape route: a town in South Carolina.

The farm is home to numerous freed black people and escapees. Cora is then taken into Tennessee, a passenger on Ridgeway’s journey to capture yet another slave before taking Cora back to the Randall plantation where, Ridgeway says, Lovey has already been severely (and fatally) punished for her escape attempt and where, he adds, an even worse fate awaits Cora.