Hidden Figures Essay Questions

Hidden Figures tells a story that spans three decades, during which there's a world war and multiple social and scientific movements that affect thousands of Langley employees. What techniques does Shetterly use to make that story feel cohesive?

Shetterly makes the narrative of Hidden Figures feel cohesive using techniques that include point-of-view characters (like Johnson, Vaughan, and so on) and continual comparison. The four women provide the framework of almost every chapter. The events of the time period at Langley are filtered through their personal experiences. Shetterly uses examples from their home life (like Jackson making a soapbox car with her son, or Vaughan taking her children out for picnics) to illustrate the larger societal forces at work (like upward mobility and housing inequality). The POV focus differentiates Hidden Figures from a purely historiographical account, and as a result, it's easier to relate to and remember the facts the story presents.

Another technique to make thr story feel cohesive is a continual comparison between the American civil rights movement and the scientific movement at Langley. Drawing parallels between different forms of development highlights both similarities and differences in their progress. As aerospace engineering booms during and after WWII, so does civil-rights activism and action from the federal government; though the space race makes rapid progress in the 60s, the quest for racial equality seems to stall out. Comparisons like this inform our understanding of both movements, which makes both more memorable, as well as reminding us that no part of history exists in a vacuum.

Hidden Figures outlines many of the forces that encouraged America to eventually desegregate. Which do you think was the most important? Why?

There are many possible answers, including but not limited to:

Conflict with the USSR during the Cold War put pressure on America to make allies among nations that only recently were liberated from colonization. America's racist domestic policies simply made this more difficult, as non-white countries could look at American newspapers and see that their potential ally was treating non-white people poorly on their own soil. In order to support its own claims of defending democracy, America needed to clean up its public image.

Pressure from activists like A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr., and others rose to the front of the national discussion. Their ideas were supported by community action, like the Greensboro sit-in, student walk-outs, and marches on Washington. Hidden Figures mentions these nonviolent protests to emphasize their effectiveness, especially in conjunction with the great black scholars of the time, like W. E. B. Du Bois, who promoted ideals of equality and excellence.

Wartime shortages created a desperate need for labor and innovation. In WWII, a high percentage of previous job holders (i.e., white men) were fighting abroad, and segregation only perpetuated the shortage of workers. Later, while NASA pushed against promoting women above computing/math aide roles, a third of engineering graduates in the USSR were women. Wasting over half of the nation's resources put America behind, and that economic pressure encouraged legislation that allowed women and people of color to gain recognition for their abilities.

What is the significance of the COLORED COMPUTERS sign in Hidden Figures?

The lunch table in the Langley cafeteria at which the West Computers are made to sit is marked by a sign that says COLORED COMPUTERS. There are other black employees at Langley (notably the male engineers), but they primarily eat in their work areas or nearby restaurants that will serve black folks. The women eat in the segregated cafeteria, though, and that sign is the most visible symbol of their difference: not different because of who they are, but different because of how they have been treated by a society that keeps them separate. Miriam Mann begins to steal that sign, putting it in her purse every lunch, until Langley stops replacing it. This is the most personal of the many nonviolent protests depicted in the book, as Mann risks her job (which she loves) to remove that symbol of inequality. The sign's disappearance doesn't mean the colored computers can sit at another table, but it does mean the women can eat and talk in peace, without being visibly confronted by society's inequality.

Though there are no black astronauts by the end of Hidden Figures, there is a popular black face in space: Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek. Why does Shetterly mention Lieutenant Uhura?

Lieutenant Uhura is an example of the importance of representation. The huge amount of money and energy America invested in space travel left many black folks feeling understandably abandoned. Promises of change from politicians over the last decade were put on the back burner in favor of putting a man on the moon—and a white man at that, supported by the televised room of white engineers and white politicians.

Shetterly explains this, and then mentions Lieutenant Uhura, who, like Katherine Johnson and many others involved in America's progress in space, was black, brilliant, and really good at her job. There might not be black astronauts in real life, but children can watch someone who looks like them on one of the most popular television shows ever. Martin Luther King Jr. himself was a Trekkie, and he personally encouraged Nichelle Nichols to continue with the show, because seeing her onscreen inspired that next generation to dream.

Christine Darden comes to Langley years later than Vaughan, Johnson, and Jackson. Why does Shetterly include her as a "main character"?

Even though Darden isn't at Langley during WWII or the space boom, her perspective is still important to the narrative of Hidden Figures. Firstly, her arrival at Langley demonstrates the generational improvements made in the last few decades, thanks to the steadfast work of Vaughan, Jackson, Johnson, and numerous others. There's no COLORED COMPUTERS sign; there are some female engineers (though still not many); Darden is able to pursue a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, which was almost inconceivable 20 years before.

Secondly, Darden's younger perspective makes for a better story at times. Some things are better from a more youthful angle, like explaining the crisis at Little Rock while Darden herself is a high schooler—it's more relatable and immediate. On the flip side, learning about Sputnik from Darden's perspective simplifies things, allowing Shetterly to talk more about the national climate, less about the technicalities of Sputnik. Any NASA mathematician would certainly have been very interested in the nitty-gritty "how it works" of Sputnik, while Darden's perspective focuses more on the national influence of the satellite.