Washington Black

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

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Part 4, Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4: “England, 1836”

Part 4, Chapter 4 Summary

The day that Wash and Tanna plan to go to visit the offices of the abolitionist society, the octopus Wash had taken from Canada falls ill, “growing sicker with the days, more lethargic, so that death even seemed a possibility” (310). Wash feels unsettled and unsure of the direction of his life, and the possibility that Titch might still be alive compounds this feeling. Wash has “a sudden urge to reject it, to cast all of this away, as if the great effort it was taking, and the knowledge that it would never in the end be mine, obliterated its worth” (310).

Part 4, Chapter 5 Summary

Wash and Tanna visit the abolitionist society and ask about Titch. Tanna has arranged to have papers brought out for them to look at regarding Faith Plantation. As Wash flips through the records, he comes across the advertisement for his capture, along with the record of Big Kit’s death, which he finds “peculiarly agonizing” (315). Wash also reads the details of his birth and discovers that his birth mother is Big Kit. Wash thinks back to the stories Big Kit had told him about her time in Africa, her capture and transport to the Indies, and the terrible treatment she suffered. He reflects that “she loved me with a viciousness that kept me from ever feeling complacent, with the reminder that nothing was permanent, that we would one day be lost to each other” (317). Weeping, Wash feels that he had abandoned Big Kit and is grief-stricken over how “I left her behind to the cane and the punishing sun, in favor of Titch, and began gradually to forget her face, the sound of her voice” (318).

Part 4, Chapter 6 Summary

A man enters the room and introduces himself as Robert Solander, claiming to have information regarding Titch. Solander says he had last seen Titch two years ago, when Titch came with the papers concerning Faith Plantation. Solander indicates that during the final weeks of Titch’s stay, he behaved erratically and was “increasingly peculiar,” wearing clothing that did not fit properly and seeming agitated (320). Solander also received a letter from Titch with personal advice about Solander’s marriage, postmarked only a little over a year ago, with a return address in Amsterdam under the name Peter Haas.

Part 4, Chapters 4-6 Analysis

In these chapters, Wash identifies with the captured octopus, which mirrors his heartsickness and uncertainty in the face of new knowledge concerning Titch. While Wash cares for the octopus, she still languishes and is ill for no reason that Wash or the Goffs can discern. The octopus’ gradual illness and decline reflect Wash’s anxiety.

At the abolitionist society, Wash becomes privy to startling new information about his birth and parentage. Realizing for the first time that Big Kit was in fact his birth mother, Wash is sad and frustrated that he was not able to develop his relationship with her or know her on a more personal level. At the same time, with the definitive record of her death, he mourns both the passing of the true mother that he was unaware of, as well as the surrogate mother figure who filled his childhood with stories and strength. To Wash, Big Kit represents both the possibility for true familial intimacy, as well as the ultimate impossibility of ever truly knowing another person. He also reflects upon the ways in which their mutual enslavement worked to separate and alienate them from one another, rather than to allow them to have a relationship more typical of a mother and child.

The news that Titch is still alive and may be in Amsterdam makes Wash both hopeful and agitated. Wash simultaneously resents Titch from taking him from his mother only to abandon him, while at the same time longing to renew contact with Titch.