The Underground Railroad Research Paper

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Emily Pettigrew Mr. Janota English II Honors Mar 22, 2024 Traumatic Impact on Identity

It is common in society that when going through a traumatic experience, the focus tends to stay on the negative impact the experience will have throughout life, instead of learning how to grow from the situation. Identity is developed based on how an individual reacts when faced with a negative experience, which is proven by Zauiddin Yousafazi in his Ted Talk, and Colson Whitehead in his novel, The Underground Railroad. Often when a person is recognized for being talented in their field, others tend to discredit their work by assuming that their achievements could only have happened because someone else was telling them what to do. In his Ted Talk, Yousafazi
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Because Malala often is not given the recognition she deserves, she changed the way she reacted to being discredited, and shaped her identity around it. Instead of giving up and allowing herself to become overshadowed, Malala took the opportunity to help others around the world stand up for themselves and not let others take credit for their success. Even after getting shot, Malala continued her work for education and talked about how “her crooked smile only encouraged her to work harder” (Yousafazi My Daughter Malala). Putting labels on people is something that has always been very common in society, and is usually very damaging to an individual. In his novel, The Underground Railroad, Whitehead displays the main character, Cora, as a person who can never be safe no matter where she is or what she does. After escaping the Randall plantation, Cora and two others were attacked by hog hunters who were attempting to capture them, and in self-defense, Cora accidentally killed a young white boy and was labeled as a murderer by the white public. Although Cora did kill the boy, if a white man were to have killed her, a black woman, he would have been praised by