Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Washington Black, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom vs. Captivity
Racism, Humanity, and Cruelty
Journeying and the Past
Family, Love, and Pain
Art, Science, and Curiosity
Summary
Analysis
An hour later, the squall strikes Titch and Wash, a sudden force roaring into them. Both of them are thrown around the Cloud-cutter’s basket, and Titch finds a small pile of things that are the least necessary to them and hurls it over the side of the basket, insisting that they have to find a way to rise higher, even though all they are doing is falling. Wash grasps for Titch, trying to point out the rolling waves below them.
While the Cloud-cutter represents mobility and escape for Titch and Wash, the fact that they are immediately endangered by a storm and begin to fall illustrates that they cannot escape the world for long—they are immediately confronted with and confined by danger.
Themes
Titch leans into the guide ropes, and suddenly a ship rolls into view. As the ocean swells drench them, Wash realizes that Titch is aiming directly for the ship. They crash brutally into the mast and drag across the deck. Wash is caught in the ropes as the Cloud-cutter slides toward the edge of the ship, and Titch desperately tries to free him. Suddenly, a man appears, swinging an axe and chopping the knot of ropes pinning Wash down. Wash gasps as the Cloud-cutter is thrown over the side of the deck and sucked out into the storm.
The Cloud-cutter is supposed to represent and provide freedom for Titch and Wash. But that it pins Wash down and nearly kills him foreshadows the idea that even when provided with freedom, Wash is constantly burdened by his past and doesn’t feel fully free.
Themes
