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Firstly, it is easy to see similarities between Odysseus’s journey going home andCora’s journey pursuing freedom. Homer’s Odyssey is a Greek epic poem thatpredominantly uncovers the heroic journey of Odysseus in his struggle to return toIthaca from the Trojan War. His absence for twenty years brought much trouble to thesurvival of the kingdom. Coincidentally, The Underground Railroad is an allegoricaljourney through American history that mainly presents a black woman’s struggle toescape from Georgia to the North. Both of these two works are about journey, and theplots in each are held together by adventure. Cora managed to flee Georgia andtravelled across numerous southern states. She travelled via South Carolina, a phonysanctuary, North Carolina, a living jail, and Tennessee, which had a string ofmisfortunes, including the murder of Valentine Farm. Each state was distinct, with itscustoms and ways doing things, and presented her with various of schemes andmurders. Not only must Cora avoid being caught by slave catchers, but also bypatrollers, posses, informers and free blacks. Odyssey extols liberalism andself-actualization. Similarly, The Underground Railroad highlights Cora’s fortitudeand the quest for justice and liberty.

科尔森·怀特黑德《地下铁道》中的对奴隶叙事的重写

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Conclusion

Many African American writers have revisited the slave narrative throughwriting numerous neo-slave narrative texts since the 1960s. The UndergroundRailroad is an outstanding work that depicts the experience of African- Americansunder the background of racism. At the same time, through the method of neo-slavenarrative, Whitehead uses the escape journey of a slave girl along the fictionalunderground railroad as a clue to present a panoramic history of American slavery andits repercussions in today’s society. Whitehead successfully recreates the platitude atpresent day. He shows the readers how prevalent racial violence was and how slaveryfunctioned at a certain time. Based on neo-slave narrative, Whitehead commencessome innovations in the theme, characters and narrative techniques.

First of all, The Underground Railroad echoes the true slave history themes ofthe slave narrative by dramatically depicting the physical and psychological journeyof slaves. The racial prejudice, discrimination, purges, and segregation witnessed byCora during her exile reflect the persistent operation of racist power in American atdifferent stages of history which are ignored in slave narrative. The novel pointsmetaphorically to the present and representation the truth history. Besides, Whiteheaduses female perspective to rewrite old themes of “freedom” which endorses a newinterpretation. The theme of freedom and history are reinterpreted in the context of theconstruction of female slave identity. Whitehead revises the obscured history in theslave narrative, presents a more comprehensive history and suggests that the racialproblems still exist in the present America.

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