Who Are The Antagonists In 'The Underground Railroad'?

2025-06-27 19:35:59 285

3 Answers

Presley
Presley
2025-06-30 07:46:00
The antagonists in 'The Underground Railroad' are as brutal as they come, representing the systemic horrors of slavery. The most immediate threat is Arnold Ridgeway, a relentless slave catcher who views hunting escaped slaves as his divine mission. His obsession with Cora, the protagonist, drives much of the novel's tension. Ridgeway isn't just a man—he's a symbol of the entire slave-catching industry, with its networks of spies and violent enforcers. Then there's the broader societal antagonist: the American South itself, with its plantations that function like death camps, its racist laws, and its ordinary citizens who either participate in or tolerate the brutality. The slave owners, the judges, the police—they all form a collective antagonist that makes freedom nearly impossible to achieve.
Mitchell
Mitchell
2025-07-02 21:50:31
In 'The Underground Railroad', the antagonists are multi-layered, reflecting both personal evil and institutional cruelty. Arnold Ridgeway stands out as the primary human antagonist, a slave catcher with a twisted philosophy. He believes in the 'American imperative'—a racist ideology justifying slavery as natural order. His relentless pursuit of Cora makes him terrifying, but what's worse is his charisma; he almost makes you understand how someone could believe such vile things.

The system itself is another villain. Each state Cora passes through presents new forms of oppression. In South Carolina, there's the faux benevolence of 'medical experiments' conducted on Black people. North Carolina has its 'Freedom Trail'—a grotesque row of lynched bodies meant to deter escapees. Even the railroad, a symbol of hope, is sabotaged by white supremacists. The book doesn't just show individual villains but how entire societies become complicit in evil.

What's chilling is the casualness of the violence. A boy getting whipped for stealing a peach, a woman burned alive for 'insolence'—these aren't orchestrated by mustache-twirling villains but by ordinary people convinced of their righteousness. The real antagonist might be the lie of white superiority itself, perpetuated through generations.
Zane
Zane
2025-07-03 01:37:19
Reading 'The Underground Railroad', I was struck by how the antagonists aren't just people but ideas. Arnold Ridgeway is the face of it—a man who sees slavery as destiny. His partner, Homer, a Black child who freely works for him, adds another layer. Homer's presence asks uncomfortable questions about complicity and internalized oppression.

Then there's Terrance Randall, the plantation heir who takes sadism to new heights after inheriting Cora's home plantation. His cruelty isn't just personal; it's systemic, backed by laws and traditions. The state governments are antagonists too, each with their own flavor of racism. South Carolina's 'benevolent' eugenics, North Carolina's outright extermination policy—they show how oppression adapts.

The book forces you to see the everyday collaborators: the shopkeepers who ignore screams, the teachers who preach obedience. The antagonists aren't anomalies; they're products of their world. Even Cora's mother, Mabel, who abandoned her, functions as a kind of antagonist—her absence haunts Cora's journey. The novel makes clear that evil isn't always dramatic; sometimes it's quiet, bureaucratic, or even familial.
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