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
In the mornings, Mr. Wilde works on his experiments and specimens in the fourth igloo. One day, Wash sketches a specimen, and he is astounded at his own skill—how much he has grown in the past few months, both in life and in art. Mr. Wilde peers at the sketch, and he notes the talent there. Wash can sense both awe and mockery, as if Mr. Wilde is watching a houseplant learn to speak.
Again, the book emphasizes how cruelty and dehumanization aren’t the only ways in which racism manifests. Mr. Wilde’s compliment also has an underlying condescension, as though it’s surprising that Wash could have artistic talent or a desire to paint.
Themes
In the afternoons, Wash walks with Mr. Wilde and Titch, and Wash can see that Titch is eager with his father but often gets hurt as a result. He also sees Titch’s anguish over not impressing his father, and over not knowing how to explain that they are in hiding. One day, Wash insists to Titch that he has to tell Mr. Wilde the truth of what happened, but Titch doesn’t respond.
Wash acknowledges the complexity of Titch and his father’s dynamic—that Titch wants to please his father, but as a result he often gets hurt. Ironically, this mirrors Wash and Titch’s dynamic, as Wash is eager to please Titch and cares deeply for the man, but because Titch doesn’t always return his love, Wash can feel similarly hurt.
Themes
That night, Wash dreams of Big Kit standing at the edge of the cane fields with a halo around her head. She reaches for him, and her touch is cold. Then suddenly they are standing in the snow, and Big Kit asks Wash to be her eyes. She presses her eyes in with her fingers and a blue light shines from them. Wash feels peace and well-being, but when he wakes in the darkness, he is crying.
Wash’s dream is filled with descriptions that imply Big Kit’s death, which is why he wakes up in despair: her halo, her cold touch, Wash’s sense of peace and well-being in her presence. At the same time, the dream acknowledges that Wash was able to achieve freedom while Big Kit never did. In the book’s opening chapters, Wash loves Big Kit because she witnessed a world that Wash never knew (he was born into slavery; she was not). Now, their dynamic has flipped, as Wash has become Big Kit’s “eyes” into a world that she was barred from for most of her life.
Themes
The next day, Wash lets Titch go with his father alone and sketches the igloos. When Titch returns, he says angrily that Wash doesn’t know what a family is, because he has never had one. Wash tentatively asks what happened. Titch says that his father doesn’t want to inform anyone that he is still alive so he can continue undisturbed in his research. Titch even wonders if his father started the rumors himself.
This exchange again highlights the capacity for family to cause deep pain. Unwilling to take on the burden of his responsibilities at home, Mr. Wilde essentially refuses to tell others that he is alive so that he can continue research undisturbed—in effect, pushing that responsibility onto his sons, which hurts Titch deeply. However, Titch also has the capacity to hurt—by implying that Wash doesn’t know what a family is, he is taking away from the familial bond that they share and hurting Wash in the process.
Themes
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Titch says angrily that he doesn’t want to stay in America, or England, or the Indies, or the Arctic. Wash assures Titch that he’ll go wherever Titch wants. Clasping Wash’s hands, Titch says that he didn’t ask Wash to accompany him. Wash will be safe in the Arctic, and he has made arrangements and left money so Wash can stay. Titch then takes up his pack of supplies and exits the igloo into the blistering wind and snow.
Here, Titch implies for the second time that Wash has become a burden to him. Just as Wash feels tethered to Titch in order to remain free, Titch feels that Wash is stifling him in turn because Titch constantly has to take care of him. Their link, therefore, has taken a toll on both of their freedoms.
Themes
Wash crawls out of the igloo after Titch. He can tell that Titch is trying to liberate himself from Wash, but Wash is terrified at the idea of being alone. Wash walks stubbornly after Titch, and Titch hollers at him in the wind to go back, saying that Wash is breaking his heart in trying to follow him. Wash worries that Titch is trying to kill himself, and he can’t even see the path back anymore. Wash calls after Titch, asking Titch to come back with him to at least wait out the weather. Titch sets his pack down and walks out into the white void.
Titch’s attempt to separate from Wash is a drastic turning point in Wash’s life. Wash feels like Titch is abandoning him despite Wash’s deep loyalty to and family-like connection with Titch. Wash’s desperation in this moment shows how tightly he was clinging to Titch, but also how deeply hurt he is by this man who acted as a father figure for him, again reinforcing how loving family members can sometimes cause the greatest pain in a person’s life. Additionally, the snowstorm that pops up here again punctuates the emotional turbulence between them.
Themes
