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The Symbolism Of Cora In The Underground Railroad

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In The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead, Cora is an enslaved black young woman that escapes her plantation in hope to become free. She travels through many states that come with many different states of possibility for black people. Colson Whitehead uses gardens throughout the book to symbolize how taking care of something gives Cora a sense of ownership over herself. Gardens require maintenance and attention, which typically instills a sense of pride and ownership in the gardener through assisting in the garden's success. While Cora is in Georgia, she is the owner of a plot of land that she tends to and gardens. Her grandmother, mother, and now she, have all tended to and taken care of this generational plot. After Cora’s mother, …show more content…

Tending to her bed was necessary maintenance but also a message that she had not lost her resolve since the day of the hatchet” Find page number. As it is stated, Cora needs her alone time while she is living at the Randall Plantation. As an enslaved person, she is continuously given instructions on what to do and when. This is Cora's lone chance to unwind and feel in control of her actions because gardens are devoid of laws and regulations, she feels that she has the freedom to choose to do whatever she wants through something. This gives Cora a sense of ownership. However, after leaving the plantation Cora realizes that the sense of ownership she was feeling was …show more content…

After seeing everyones’ hopes for freedom being crushed just outside a hole in her cramped attic,Cora begins to reflect on her sense of independence she felt through her garden, “Cora thought of her garden back on Randall, the plot she cherished. Now she saw it for the joke it was—a tiny square of dirt that had convinced her she owned something. It was hers like the cotton she seeded, weeded, and picked was hers” (184). Cora begins to wonder if she ever had owned her garden after witnessing black people like her being killed for believing they had the same rights as white people. She talks about how she felt like she owned the garden despite the fact that she was living and working on a plantation. Since the Randall brothers were technically her owners at the time, they also owned anything else she had. She came to the realization that black people like her never truly owned everything because they were always owned by the racial oppresion in

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