The nail symbolizes Wash’s futile resistance, and the threat that resistance actually poses to the enslaved people on Faith Plantation. When Titch demands that Wash come stay with him in his quarters, Big Kit gives Wash a thick iron nail to drive into Titch’s eye if Titch tries to sexually assault Wash. While walking to Titch’s house, Wash clutches the nail “like a secret, like a crack through which some impossible future might be glimpsed.” At first, he views the nail as an opportunity for resistance, allowing him some alternative to his enslaved life.
However, as soon as Wash enters into Titch’s house, Titch notices the nail and asks Wash to set it down—and Wash realizes that he could be killed simply for having a potential weapon. This illustrates how white men have so much power in this society that even the mere prospect of resistance is hopeless. While the nail provides some hope for Wash in the moment, he quickly realizes that using it would mean his own death. In fact, the way he speaks about the nail as a glimpse into an “impossible future” ties into other language in the book—the idea that death could be a door, leading to a different world. In this way, the book subtly connects the two, as Wash recognizes that the nail would spell his certain death and make his resistance pointless.
The Nail Symbol Timeline in Washington Black
