The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead
Contributed by Adelina Essary
Symbols
Symbols are objects or figures that artists use to represent an idea.
Cora’s Garden

The garden is a small patch of land on Randall, just three yards squared, on which Cora grows vegetables. The garden was passed down from Ajarry to Mabel, and—when Mabel ran away—to Cora. The garden is described as Cora’s “inheritance,” and thus it is a physical manifestation of the personal qualities Cora inherited from her mother and grandmother: the ability to persevere from Ajarry, and the courage for rebellion from Mabel. Endurance and rebellion are also both contained within the garden itself, as the garden presents the opportunity for Cora to take ownership over something, thereby reclaiming ownership over herself. When both Cora and Mabel run away, they bring produce from the garden to help sustain them; the garden thus becomes a symbol of life, possibility, the future, and freedom. Since familial relationships under slavery are filled with loss, trauma, and separation, tending to the garden becomes a kind of substitute for the nurture and care normally practiced within the family. When Blake tries to take over the garden for his dog, Cora fiercely defends it, foreshadowing her defense of her own life and freedom throughout the novel.

Hob

When Mabel runs away, Cora becomes a “stray” and is placed in Hob, the cabin for exiled women on Randall. Although the other people living on Randall believe that all Hob women are insane, the only thing that truly unites the women there is their exclusion from the rest of the community. Some have indeed been driven to mental instability by the trauma and violence of slavery, whereas others—like Cora—have simply been labeled as strange and rejected on account of their perceived difference. Being sent to Hob is generally thought of as a curse; many of the residents stay away from Hob women, and there are bizarre rumors spread about them (such as the story that Cora has sex with animals). However, Cora comes to love the other women in Hob and the community they build together. Being labeled insane, in fact, offers a form of protection from violence and hostility. Furthermore, because the decision to run away requires an element of madness, Hob becomes a stepping stone on Cora’s route to freedom. Being cast out of the community allows Cora to dream of casting herself out of Randall and into the terrifying unknown of life on the run. Throughout her journey to freedom, Cora carries the spirit of Hob with her, which encourages her to be brave, rebellious, and fierce.

Griffin Building

The Griffin Building is a 12-story building in the unnamed town in South Carolina where Cora lives in the dormitories. It is the tallest building Cora has ever seen, and one of the tallest in all of the South. Mr. Anderson, Cora’s employer, works in the building managing cotton contracts. Hospital administration takes place in the building and records are also kept there, with files for all of the black dormitory residents. When Cora takes the Anderson children to visit their father, she is stunned by her ride in the elevator, although the children are used to it and pay it no mind. Due to its size and high-tech features, Griffin symbolizes modernity, progress, and the future. The vision of the future that Griffin represents is one of bureaucracy, capitalist wealth, and scientific research. The residents of the town are proud of this vision, believing that Griffin symbolizes their achievements. However, as the novel shows, there is a very dark underside to these aspects of modernity. Bureaucratic laws and record keeping allow the state to maintain control over black people, and the profits made in the South are produced through the exploitation and brutality of slavery. Furthermore, the medical research conducted on black people at the hospital is done without proper consent. Griffin thus comes to symbolize the way in which American progress and modernity is constructed through violence against the black population.

The Freedom Trail

The Freedom Trail is an endless row of lynched black bodies in North Carolina, left out on display to warn black people against rebellion. The bodies are mutilated and rotting, and the Freedom Trail thus represents the gory reality of white supremacy. The Trail is a mythic site with fantastical elements, such as the fact that it has no beginning or end. In this way, the Trail represents the limitless and unimaginable violence exerted on black people and the absolute moral vacuum of white supremacy. While no such trail existed in history, lynching was such a massive phenomenon that if the bodies of all the black people lynched in America were lined up, the trail would indeed stretch out in a seemingly infinite manner. Furthermore, because this violence was so widespread and normalized, it is impossible to know the exact numbers of people murdered in this way. The infinite nature of the Freedom Trail thus represents the unknowability of the history of black life in America, particularly given the fact that enslaved people were forbidden from recording accounts of their own lives and that those who were lynched were silenced forever. The trail confirms the symbolic link between death and freedom in the novel. While Cora is on the run, most of the people who flee with her or help her are killed, and thus Cora is haunted by her own symbolic Freedom Trail comprised of all the deaths that take place during her escape.

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