How does knowing your antagonist’s character (ethos) teach you about your protagonist?
How does knowing your antagonist’s character (ethos) teach you about your protagonist? Whitehead’s novel often takes detours to enter the stories of auxiliary characters. The chapters “Ridgeway” and “Stevens” focus on such characters. We’ve encountered many supplementary characters so far that Whitehead could have chosen—characters whose goals are antithetical to Cora’s. Consider, as a rhetor yourself, the purpose of an antagonist in a narrative. Particularly in the slave narratives we’ve discussed so far in class (“The Underground Railroad”, Frederick Douglas’, Alice Walker’s) who/what are the antagonists to the rhetor? Particularly in “The Underground Railroad”, have you noticed a change of language or tone when antagonist’s POVs are given? What affect does this stylistic choice have?
