Underground Airlines Literary Analysis

Ben Winter’s Underground Airlines is a prime example of what African American literature is. While the novel itself may be identified as a science-fiction novel, it also involves many of the themes common within the African American literature genre. The novel portrays the main character’s, Victor’s, struggle with himself and his actions, a semblance of self-discovery. In addition there is also a heavy, undisputable, tone concerning race and racism within the alternate-America’s reality. While these themes are able to be identified within other genres, it is the history behind them, specifically within works by the pioneers themselves of African Americans literature, combined with the application within a literary work, which sets them apart

“But the moment of Kevin’s death kept on ricocheting through my body. Over and over again. Flying backwards, and he flying backwards on top of me. The blood from my shoulder mingling with the blood of his chest. That had changed everything --- a bell that rang in me. A crack in the firmament of the world” (Winters). It is this moment, this abrupt fracture in Victor’s world, that changes everything for him. The murder of Kevin opens up a new insight into Victor’s own self. It forces him to realize that his carefully cultivated world where he worked for his own freedom without any empathy or feeling toward the other escaped slaves, ones who were just like him, is not all that there is, despite his best efforts. This element of self-discovery, where he genuinely is aware of himself and his actions thus far, sets up the rest of the novel and the decisions he will make from there on out. The idea of self-discovery is not one that is unique to Underground Airlines. Another example, from probably one of the most recognizable African American literary works, is written by Zora Neale Hurston. Within Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the self-discovery that takes place is not the same kind as Victor experiences, but is just as vital to the work all the same. In Their Eyes Were Watching God the self-discovery the main character, Janie, experiences is one of romance. From an early age she sought love. At first she thought it came automatically with marriage, then from being able to make her own choice of husband, until finally she realized that for herself to experience the love she wanted, she could notforce. It would come in its own time on its own terms. (Hurston). While these two aspects of self-discovery are quite different, one being