Vol. 6, Issue 2, Part C (2024)

This paper considers race and gender representation in Colson Whitehead's “The Underground Railroad”, with a special focus on how intersectionality works within these texts. This thesis situates in the portrait of Cora, a young African American woman and the protagonist of the novel, who stands as an articulate representative for establishing a connection between racial and gendered oppression at work in tandem during the antebellum South. Through this theoretical framework of intersectionality, one learns how Cora's identity is divined and constrained by race and gender, and how these identities, at their cutting points, influence her experiences on her pathway to freedom. This is further underlined through different characters who become representatives of different dimensions of race, gender, and class. This paper will also try to elaborate on how Whitehead's narrative works to deepen an understanding of the historical events of slavery and racist practices but rings out a critical judgment upon systemic inequalities today. Wired with intersectionality, this becomes an indictment against the legacies of racism and sexism; this story offers an optimistic rescue of the resiliency and agency of those navigating such structures.