Cora's Search for Freedom: An Archetypal Analysis
What does it really mean to be free? Is it just about leaving a place where you are treated badly, or is it being able to make your own choices without always being scared? While I was reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, I started thinking about these questions through Cora's experiences. She wants to escape slavery and have control over her own life, but her journey is way harder than just leaving the plantation. Using archetypal theory, I can connect Cora's experiences to a hero's journey, where a character leaves their well-known world, faces challenges, and changes along the way. However, Cora's journey is not like a normal hero's story because she isn’t sure that things will get better after each challenge she faces. Archetypes are common patterns in characters, themes, symbols, or situations that appear in stories from different cultures and time periods (“Archetype”). Image Source: Smithsonian Magazine One of the main archetypes I recognize...