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
Wash staggers to the Goffs’ house, where Tanna answers the door in her nightgown. She’s stocked to see him covered in blood, his shirt torn. She immediately turns to get her medical bag, and despite his pain, Wash feels a heat flow through him at seeing her. He follows her into the room, noticing the pitiful fire in the hearth. As Tanna dabs at Wash’s face and heats a needle for suturing, she starts to cry. She stitches his torn face, cursing whoever did this to him.
This exchange illustrates how despite their emotional turmoil, Wash and Tanna can still provide each other with a great deal of support and comfort, as in this moment when she helps stitch him up.
Themes
After Tanna finishes the wounds, she notes that Wash thinks her fire is bad. He asks to fix it, but she refuses, instructing him to rest. Still, he gets up to fix the fire and tells her that the timber is still damp. She shrugs, saying she’s hopeless. Wash gets up to leave, knowing Goff is likely due back the next day. Tanna tells him that he’s a gentleman—perhaps too much so. Wash stares at her, wanting to put his hands and mouth on her. Then, Tanna slowly steps forward and unbuttons her gown.
While Wash doesn’t have a traditional family, Tanna is already a partner to him in many ways—both romantically and in the scientific work that they do together.
Themes
Later, as Wash and Tanna lie on the floor, they watch the rain pound at the windows. Wash is amazed at how natural their bodies felt together, and he kisses her forehead. He asks if Tanna was going to illustrate Goff’s book, and she says no. She hoped her father would ask, which is why she aimed to get better, but Wash is the better choice. He tells her that he will turn her father down, but she refuses. She says it’s important for people like Wash to get the chance to do it, to show his talent.
As Wash and Tanna deepen their love, they also can already cause each other a great deal of pain, like Wash in some sense taking Tanna’s place as Goff’s illustrator. In addition, Tanna acknowledges the value of Wash illustrating the book to counter people’s stereotypes that a “person like Wash” (which is to say, a Black man) couldn’t have his artistic talents.
Themes
As Tanna turns away, Wash notes three birthmarks on her lower back, and she says she hates her birthmarks as she kisses him. He asks her what her favorite marine life is, saying his is the nudibranch, which will steal the harpoon off a jellyfish and mount it to its own back. Tanna says she likes the octopus, because it can match its surroundings, stretch and fold itself, and is clever. He kisses her ear, saying that an octopus also has three hearts.
While the book has already established a connection between Wash and the octopus, Tanna’s connection to it is just as revealing. She likes the octopus for its intelligence, but also because of its adaptability. This is particularly salient for Tanna, as she often feels like an outsider in English society because she is mixed-race. Therefore, she would be able to avoid people’s racist assumptions if she could adapt her appearance like an octopus.
Themes
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As Wash gathers Tanna closer to him, she says that she always felt she was different, and she knows he feels the same. She meant him no ill will when she said he was a slave, and as she says this, Wash recalls the pain of the last hours and thinks he might cry. He tells her about Faith, Erasmus, Big Kit, Titch, Philip’s suicide, and the trip to the Arctic.
Tanna’s comments here illustrate that as much as Wash is trying to get away from his past, it is an unavoidable part of him that other people can see, much like his scars. And in telling Tanna about his life, he deepens their bond even though it causes him a great deal of pain. This shows how loving family members can also cause pain by letting each other be vulnerable, but in a way that ultimately helps them process their experiences.
Themes
Wash says he feels life with Titch wasn’t real—but he was afraid of returning to the real world when he was with Titch. He is ashamed of how he turned away from Big Kit and everything he knew, and the cruelty that others experienced. Tanna asks then if it was John Willard who attacked him. He says nothing, and she asks if Wash killed the man. Wash says no, knowing that his angle had been awkward and that Willard likely only lost an eye.
Here, Wash acknowledges that much of his life with Titch didn’t feel real—it only felt like a way to avoid his past. But he also acknowledges how much pain he caused to Big Kit by abandoning her, in the same way that he was hurt by Titch abandoning him. In this way, Wash knows that he has both been hurt by complicated family dynamics and that he has hurt others as well.
Themes
Tanna says that Wash has to come with them to London—he’ll be more protected there. Wash points out that Titch argued differently, but Tanna says that Titch only saw Wash as an assistant, and never as his equal. It is unlikely that he saw anything in Wash beyond his immediate usefulness. Wash disagrees internally but says nothing.
Up until this point, the book has portrayed Titch as a fairly virtuous abolitionist, particularly in contrast with Erasmus. But Tanna’s statement here highlights that Titch also dehumanized Wash, albeit to a lesser extent: he only saw Wash as a person who could be useful to him, not as a person in his own right who deserved equal treatment.
Themes
Wash notes that Erasmus is dead now, and Willard said that he saw Titch in Liverpool. Tanna states that Willard just wanted to put Wash off guard—and even if it’s true, Wash is his own man, and he doesn’t owe Titch anything. She asks Wash again to come with them to London, saying that if she’s not tempting enough, he should think of the specimens. She kisses his forehead, and he presses his face into her hair.
Up until this point, Wash has been traveling in order to run from his past. But here, the book hints at the fact that Wash will soon spend a great deal of time trying to confront his past by seeking out Titch, despite Tanna’s warnings that dwelling on his past hurt isn’t useful.
Themes
