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Quality
“The Task” refers to the institution of slavery as well as specific units of slave labor. Accordingly, enslaved people are categorized as “the Tasked.”
Tasked Quotes in The Water Dancer
The The Water Dancer quotes below are all either spoken by Tasked or refer to Tasked. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 6 Quotes
At every gathering there was this dispute about my mother’s mother, Santi Bess, and her fate. The myth held that she had executed the largest escape of tasking folk—forty-eight souls—ever recorded in the annals of Elm County. And it was not simply that they had escaped but where they’d been said to escape to—Africa. It was said that Santi had simply led them down to the river Goose, walked in, and reemerged on the other side of the sea.
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It is Christmas Day, and after serving the Walkers and their guests a Christmas feast, the enslaved people of Lockless are joined by other local black people (both enslaved and free) for their own feast. After, the conversation turns to a story about Hiram’s grandmother, Santi Bess. Hiram’s account of this story paints it as more myth than reality, and it is obvious why. Not only is Santi Bess have said to escaped the plantation (a difficult enough feat in itself), but she is said to have taken an astounding 48 people with her and transported them through the water Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic t
Chapter 14 Quotes
The Task was a trap. Even Georgie was trapped. And so who was Corrine Quinn to judge such a man? Who was I, who’d run with no higher purpose save my own passions and my own skin? Now I understood the Underground war. It was not the ancient and honorable kind.
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Having been saved by Corrine Quinn, Amy, and Hawkins, and finding out that they are all agents of the Underground Railroad, Hiram prepares to join the Underground himself. In order to test if he is trustworthy, Corrine asks for Hiram’s permission to seek revenge against Georgie for betraying him, which will involve Georgie being killed (at best) or tortured, re-enslaved, and sent into the Deep South to die an even more agonizing, slow death (at worst). Here, Hiram expresses his own reservations about Corrine’s quickness to judge Georgie. Although Georgie did indeed betray Hiram in a way that almost certainly Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recus
Chapter 24 Quotes
“We can’t ever have nothing pure,” Robert said. “It’s always out of sorts. Them stories with their knights and maidens, none of that for us. We don’t get it pure. We don’t get nothing clean.”
“Yeah,” I said. “But neither do they. It is quite a thing, a messy dirty thing, to put your own son, your own daughter, to the Task. Way I see it, ain’t no pure and it is we who are blessed, for we know this.”
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Hiram has accompanied Harriet on a mission to rescue her siblings, who remain enslaved in Maryland. When Hiram goes to fetch Harriet’s brother Robert, he meets Robert’s wife, Mary, who is pregnant from having been raped by her enslaver. Robert confesses to Hiram that he had planned on fleeing from Mary because he can’t stand the idea of raising another man’s baby. Understandably, Robert feels full of resentment about the way that slavery corrupts the most fundamental and important human experiences, including the experience of loving another person and having a family with them. Hiram’s rather philosophical response is important, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrup
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Tasked Term Timeline in The Water Dancer
The timeline below shows where the term Tasked appears in The Water Dancer. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...a sense of peace, knowing that there really is a world that lies beyond “the Task.” However, he is then brought back to the mortal world by Maynard’s screams. Maynard disappears,...
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Chapter 2
...the cabin he used to share with Rose and waits on the steps until the Task begins for the day. He is now 11 and rather small, but still has to...
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...young, he is only just beginning to understand the distinction between the Quality and the Tasked, and dreams about the life of “splendor and regale” that the Quality lead.
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Chapter 3
...chained to Maynard, who is only a baby and doesn’t notice the presence of the Tasked. Everyone disappears but Hiram and Maynard, then Maynard and the field dissolve too, and the...
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Chapter 4
Sophia is a young woman who does not seem to task, though this is because she “belong[s]” to Nathaniel Walker, Howell’s brother. Every weekend Hiram drives...
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...the hands of the Quality just so they can in turn oppress and degrade the Tasked. Hiram, meanwhile, goes to join the black people, some of whom are enslaved and some...
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...thinks that although she doesn’t love him now, she might “in a world beyond the Task.” Given the state of Virginia, it would no longer be possible for Hiram to buy...
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Chapter 6
...black people who remember him from childhood and who knew Rose. On Christmas Day, the Tasked divide themselves so that half work on preparing a feast for the white people, and...
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Chapter 11
...assigned to work for Maynard. Maynard asked Hiram to gather together a large group of Tasked; he then told them that they were due to race each other for Maynard’s entertainment....
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Chapter 14
...many others before him. She wants to frame him for betrayal—not a betrayal of the Tasked, but of his Taskmasters. As punishment, he will be killed or re-enslaved, his family brutally...
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Chapter 15
...not have a separate car for black people. This is because “The Quality [keep] their Tasked ones close the way a lady keeps her clutch, closer even.” The journey takes two...
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Chapter 24
...sees two low whites going out for a hunt, and a mix of Quality and Tasked children playing together. Once night falls, he goes back to greet Harriet, who apologizes for...
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Chapter 27
...highly reluctant, but Hiram insists, and Corrine eventually agrees. The next day, Hiram dons his tasking clothes while Corrine dresses in her mourning outfit. They drive through the town and past...
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