Throughout many of Colson Whitehead's books comes many similar plots. For example, both The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys have a relentless character that fights for what is right. They must fight for what they believe in and what is true to them. Cora has to overcome many obstacles just to get to the north. Also Elwood has to overcome the racial injustice just to get through his years in the Nickel Academy. This leads to consistent open ended books such as the Institutionist leaving the readers' imagination open at the end of the books. 

Many books show the post racial side of things. Not only the post racial side of things, but he also shows the crooked side of things, such as Elwood getting beat until he fell unconscious in the book the Nickel Boys. Also, Whitehead would feed his characters their dreams. They get what they want after hardships and their trauma. Elwood from the Nickel Boys eventually leaves the academy. This all comes from the foreshadowing of events or even can be from characters development and growth throughout his books. Lastly, Whitehead mostly has characters with the same problem of authority. They have no authority and are getting bossed around but must overcome it. 

Throughout the book there is constant progress made within the racial justice. It is about fighting for institutions. She is discriminated against and seen as weird or different from the rest of people. The main character Lila May Watson is seen as a symbol of progression to equality. There are many metaphors of elevators throughout the book revealing this can show the systematic oppression through the barriers of her bounds. 

Many of Colson Whitehead's books deal with the race to freedom. Not only is this a race for equality but for the individual characters in each book. Cora from The Underground Railroad is a prime example of this. There is almost always a character of symbolism in every book. For example, the symbol of barriers of oppression in the book Institutionist is the constant metaphors of the elevators. Universally, the main character is a good person and acceptable character. Mostly they are trying to face the bully of the book and take it down. One example is Cora still trying to go against the slave owners and help bring people to the north star and to freedom. They always fight for justice and the right thing to do. 

Slavery is portrayed as more of a force that controls identity and life as a whole rather than just the physical aspects of slavery. There is a grand amount of bad things explained well in the book about slavery and the trials and tribulations it takes to get away to the north and experience freedom. The book describes the journey to freedom as similar to a game of cat and mouse. As soon as they are getting close something bad happens and the slave catchers get even closer to getting them, but then they find a way to escape and keep pushing to the north. This is also seen as slavery use a global capitalism and is the overarching reason why people get rich and are making money. Also, this book did a great job recreating bits and pieces of the Uncle Toms Cabin through the scenes created in the book.  

This book explains and shows black history very well with important figures recreated in the book that were important to America. It connects myths and history together to show what was real and fake along with the use of recreating real events such as the Altamont speedway riot. This book has a great story line and created many different and realistic problems for a black male in that time period. This does a great job showing the amount of black labor and pain that they had to go through just to keep their family afloat. All of that just for white entertainment is cruel and should never happen in a world with everyone considered as equals. It also does a great job showing how the media becomes the truth even if it is not even true.

This book has a great true story and many traumatic scenes from watching someone beg for not knowing to getting beat until they passed out from the pain. This book has inspired real change in the world to help people that have had to go through what Elwood and the other boys had to go through. Although it is a very sad book it creates a lot of great story and the plot is outstanding.

This book has many scenarios that no one want to experience yet many people can relate to some experiences in the book. This shows just how powerful names can be and what they can entail. This struggle of finding a name through the book shows just how difficult it can be. They make the name suitable for the reputation they have and want to keep.