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
Every night, Wash wonders about this choice—what might have happened if he went with those men. The morning after this decision, Titch and Wash return to Norfolk to find a charter heading towards the Arctic. Wash doesn’t speak to Titch during this whole journey; he feels like Titch wants to cast him off even though he knows Titch is trying to protect him. But Titch showed him curiosity, and fostered his intelligence, and Wash wanted a life with the man. In hindsight, he doesn’t wonder if he would make the same choice again, because he knows that the path can never be retaken.
With this shift in narration (looking back on these incidents from the future), Wash foreshadows how these incidents also become a part of his past that plague him, and from which he cannot escape. But again, he emphasizes that he made his decision based on the love that he had for Titch, despite the pain that Titch caused him by suggesting they separate—even though Wash knows Titch did this for Wash’s own protection.
Themes
Titch and Wash board the Calliope. The captain, Michael Holloway, was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and has clear prejudice against Wash. But the captain’s second, Jacob Ibel, speaks to Wash like a human being and often plays cards with him. Wash likes Ibel very much, but he doesn’t trust either man. As they were boarding the ship, Wash noticed a short, portly man watching Wash on the railing as the ship set out, but by the time Wash pointed him out to Titch, the man was gone.
Wash continues to face racist attitudes aboard the Calliope, as the Captain refuses to talk to him like a human being (though the second in command is more open). Additionally, this marks the first time that Wash starts to become truly nervous about John Willard coming after him, as he grows more and more intent on trying to avoid this shadow from the past by journeying to the literal ends of the earth.
Themes
Titch and Wash settle back into the routine of ship life, and Wash starts to feel like he’s leaving Willard behind. When they are sailing through Labrador, Titch asks Holloway and Ibel what kind of expedition they’re on, and Ibel explains that they are seeking the wreck of a whaler to find barrels of oil that were left on a nearby island. They aimed to be the first ship out that season to collect it before anyone else.
Wash again emphasizes how he is using his journey in order to escape his past, while Titch is using the journey in order to seek out his father and fully acknowledge the past failings in their relationship. Despite journeying forward into new places and into the future, Titch and Wash are largely preoccupied with their pasts.
Themes
Wash has never seen ice before, and as the ship sails past ice formations, he is amazed by their beauty and sadness and feels like they are leaving the world of the living. He tries to sketch it as they sail slowly across the channels. Wash bundles up so much that he waddles, and the crew starts to call him a penguin. When Ibel shows Wash a sketch of a penguin, he laughs at the nickname. With every league, he and Titch feel lighter. But the ice also makes them feel more solitary, and Wash keeps thinking of Willard, Philip, of Big Kit and his long years at Faith.
Wash again uses art to try to understand the ice’s beauty—particularly its natural, haunting quality that surpasses scientific understanding. This illustrates how art and science can also complement each other, providing different perspectives on the same phenomena. Additionally, the book implies here that Wash and Titch do feel that their journey is helping them avoid their past on Faith Plantation, but Wash’s constant thoughts about what happen suggest otherwise.
Themes
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Finally, the ship arrives at the Arctic trading post, and Titch and Wash bid the ship goodbye. Titch asks the trader at the outpost about his father’s camp, and the trader points out a man who can take them. The man is alarmingly ominous, with a large boil on his nose, but Titch thanks the trader and approaches the man. To Wash’s surprise, they greet each other warmly—it is Peter House, his father’s assistant. Wash watches in wonder as Titch and Peter make elegant gestures at each other, and Titch tells Wash with tears in his eyes that his father is alive. When Wash asks if Peter said this, Titch explains that Peter talks with his hands. Soon, they find an Esquimau guide with a sled and dogs, and they all set out toward the camp.
Titch’s tearful joy at discovering that his father is alive contrasts with the deep pain he felt at hearing that his father was dead. This again highlights the complexity in family dynamics, because families can both foster deep love but also can cause a great deal of pain, particularly when family members are separated from one another.
Themes
