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
Over the next few days, the hanging haunts Wash. He doesn’t rejoice at the brutality of it, even though Willard deserved it. Willard wasted all his talents, all his boyhood curiosity, in senselessness and cruelty. And Wash thinks of the man he thought was Titch, realizing more strongly than ever that he must go to Amsterdam.
Wash understands how Willard’s brutality not only dehumanized the Black men and women whom he hunted and killed, but it also dehumanized Willard himself.
Themes
Tanna insists on accompanying Wash to Amsterdam, and they are excited to go away on a trip without Goff. Tanna lies to Goff and says she will visit Goff’s sister Judith in the Dutch countryside while Wash brings back the two-headed crustacean.
Tanna’s insistence that she accompany Wash again shows how even though she can criticize and hurt him, she also provides him with love and support when she knows that he needs it the most—continuing to show how families can both foster love and cause pain.
Themes
The day that Tanna and Wash travel to Peter Haas’s address, it rains. Up until that point, their journey has been very successful. A day earlier, they were able to collect the stillborn, two-headed crab, which was a shocking breach of nature. They spent the rest of the day walking around the city, and Wash tried to remember it so that he could later draw it—the same city the Old Masters sought to capture.
Wash still maintains his curiosity in both art and science. Referencing both in Wash’s trip to Amsterdam shows how vital both disciplines are in illuminating some of the world’s mysteries, like a two-headed crab or the beauty of an old city.
Themes
After arriving at Haas’s house, Tanna and Wash meet the very young master of the house, who is not the Peter that Wash once knew. Wash is deeply disappointed at having traveled for nothing. But the man says that his father is also Peter Haas, and when Wash asks if his father worked with James Wilde, the young man brings them into the dining hall for lunch and retrieves his father.
Even though Wash does end up reconnecting with Peter, his momentary disappointment illustrates a key idea. Wash is exerting an enormous amount of time and energy for the slightest chance of reconnecting with Titch, illustrating how his search to confront his past has become all-consuming.
Themes
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The elder Peter Haas takes Wash into his arms and then begins to sign while his son interprets. Peter is glad to see Wash and to know that he survived. Wash explains how they found him, and Peter says that he did not receive any letters. He explains that Titch was there about a year and a half earlier, and he did not seem to be himself. Peter has a hard time explaining how Titch is different, but he says this: Titch believes that, after walking into the storm, he returned to the camp and lived there alongside them in a kind of parallel realm.
Like Richard Solander, Peter has a difficult time fully explaining what was unsettling about Titch the last time that they saw him. But it is clear that Titch also became haunted by his own experience in the Arctic. His belief that he lived in a “parallel realm” opens up another mystery for Wash to find his own resolution for. The fact that the more Wash seeks Titch out, the more he only raises more questions suggests that understanding the past may never truly be possible, and Wash will only waste time in seeking Titch out.
Themes
Peter goes on, saying that Titch was able to recount events of what happened at the camp after his disappearance. Titch said he knew Wash was present at Mr. Wilde’s death. Wash doesn’t understand, noting that Titch is a man of science. Peter confirms that he still is, but now he is interested in discovering something beyond reality. Titch grew even more unsettled by Erasmus’s death, becoming interested in using sunlight to burn images on paper (which he called shadow grams), but Peter couldn’t always follow his ideas.
Titch’s experiences and new obsessions show how he evolved following the deaths of his three closest family members: Philip, his father, and his brother. Whereas Titch always believed that the only viable explanations for phenomena (including death) were scientific, now he seems to acknowledge that science cannot explain all of life’s mysteries. Still, he continues to use both art and science to explore marvels like death or an afterlife, suggesting that even if someone can’t find definitive answers, curiosity in and of itself is a virtue.
Themes
Wash asks where Titch went, and Peter explains that he is in Morocco, outside Marrakesh. Peter says that he is happy to give them the address. He also says that he has something, and carries a large wood case into the room. Peter says that if they find Titch, to give him the box.
Peter becomes the next step to finding Titch, this time sending Wash the furthest distance yet—to Morocco. With each new journey, Wash feels more and more unmoored, chasing Titch. This again illustrates how the past becomes inescapable, as Wash becomes obsessed with confronting his past trauma and overcomes any distance in order to do so.
Themes
When Wash asks what’s in the box, Peter explains: his first expedition, in Tahiti, was meant to study Venus as it moved across the sun’s face—which would not happen again for another hundred years. The night before, someone stole their quadrant, rendering the expedition worthless. So he sought out the thief, accompanied by an interpreter. He came upon a group of Tahitians, who were hostile to them because of the men’s guns. But Peter began to negotiate, and very slowly, the quadrant was returned—because of the only man without a voice.
Peter’s tale shows how he, like Wash, was often underestimated growing up, and yet ultimately his talent shone through in a way that proved his worth to the other scientists and expanded their understanding of the world. Similarly, Wash is able to use his knowledge and unique curiosity to advance his own field, allowing others to understand the world better.
Themes
