Hidden Figures | Study Guide

Margot Lee Shetterly

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Study Guide
Contents
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MLA

Bibliography

Course Hero. "Hidden Figures Study Guide." Course Hero. 14 June 2020. Web. 25 June 2022. <https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Hidden-Figures/>.

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APA

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Course Hero. (2020, June 14). Hidden Figures Study Guide. In Course Hero. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Hidden-Figures/

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(Course Hero, 2020)

Chicago

Bibliography

Course Hero. "Hidden Figures Study Guide." June 14, 2020. Accessed June 25, 2022. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Hidden-Figures/.

Footnote

Course Hero, "Hidden Figures Study Guide," June 14, 2020, accessed June 25, 2022, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Hidden-Figures/.

Overview

Author

Margot Lee Shetterly

Year Published

2016

Type

Nonfiction

Genre

History, Women's Studies

Perspective and Narrator

Hidden Figures is narrated in the third person. Told from the perspective of a historian, it weaves the stories of four remarkable African American women into the larger tapestry of historical events from World War II through the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Space Race.

Tense

Shetterly narrates Hidden Figures in the past tense.

About the Title

Hidden Figures refers to the women of NACA/NASA who worked in the shadows as human computers, unrecognized for their valuable contributions to aeronautic and aerospace research. It also refers to the labyrinth of numbers, equations, and formulas they processed. They are the unseen foundation for the nation's technological advances.

Diagrams

Dorothy Vaughan First black American supervisor at NASA Katherine Johnson Most recognized NASA human computer Head computer Supervisor Most trusted computer Langley pioneer Computer, colleague Langley manager John Glenn Astronaut and first American to orbit Earth Virginia Tucker First female computer supervisor at NACA Langley Henry Reid Director at the NACA and NASA Langley for 34 years Christine Darden Top female aerospace engineer at NASA Mary Jackson First black female engineer at NASA
Character Map
timeline
Timeline
plot-diagram
Plot Diagram

Summary

This study guide for Margot Lee Shetterly's Hidden Figures offers summary and analysis on themes, symbols, and other literary devices found in the text. Explore Course Hero's library of literature materials, including documents and Q&A pairs.

Characters

Katherine Johnson Dorothy Vaughan Mary Jackson Christine Darden

Symbols

The Double V Colored Signs

Themes

The American Dream Education, Hard Work, and Character War, Technology, and Social Progress
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