53 pages • 1 hour read
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The Underground Railroad is a key symbol used in more than one way during the course of the novel. Initially, Harriet’s work on the Underground Railroad symbolizes her individual strength and resilience but also the strength and resilience of African Americans writ large. Although Darnell is familiar with the “greatest hits” of Black history, hearing Harriet’s story firsthand gives him a much better sense of the difficulty that she and other conductors experienced as they guided their friends and family to freedom.
A large part of this realization for him is that, as a contemporary man without first-hand knowledge of what life was like for the enslaved, he will never truly be able to grasp their experiences. He decides that because he cannot get “inside” of what life must have been like for them, he must show people like Harriet the respect of holding space for their stories and listening more than he speaks. As such, the Underground Railroad symbolizes both strength and the respect that younger generations should show to their elders and ancestors.
It also comes to represent freedom in a more metaphorical sense, the “freedom” that Harriet argues Darnell has never truly experienced. It is on the course of their journey back up North—and this is not a coincidence, as the author argues through this scene that Harriet is “conducting” Darnell on a freedom journey of his own—that Harriet informs Darnell it is obvious to her that past experiences, limiting beliefs, and fear are keeping him in a state of metaphorical bondage.