Washington Black

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

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Part 3, Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “Nova Scotia, 1834”

Part 3, Chapter 7 Summary

Tanna visits Wash at his house one morning and suggests that they spend the morning together. Wash is nervous to be seen alone with her and speaks to her “with a feeling of dread almost, breathless” (242). Tanna has written him a note to express her feelings, but Wash is ashamed that he cannot read well, and talks with her about the nature of freedom and slavery, arguing that slavery is “a senseless outrage” and “a savagery” (244). Tanna tells him that she will be leaving with Mr. Goff in a few weeks and that she cannot dive for any more specimens because of a broken wrist. When Wash suggests that she might want him to dive in her place, she leaves in a huff.

Part 3, Chapter 8 Summary

Wash reluctantly agrees to go diving for Tanna and Mr. Goff. Wash understands that, even though Mr. Goff respects Wash as a scientist and artist, Mr. Goff does not want Wash as a potential partner for Tanna because he is a former slave and disfigured. Wash reflects that “it did not matter that he accepted me as a thinking man, that he respected my mind, or even that he was in the midst of taking a favor from me” (248). Wash dives; the beauty of the ocean overcomes him, and his body finally relaxes after years of tension and fear.

Wash describes how the ocean affects him, writing that:

I felt my body dropping away, all of the clenching and the anger and the terror, the scorch of Goff’s black, disapproving eyes, and the touch of Big Kit’s skin; the image of Titch walking backwards over the ice, the smell of Arctic timber, the shudder of the Cloud-cutter, it all fell away; the blood on the blackened grass in the clearing, the pain on Philip’s face, I let it all fall away; Willard’s small, constant shadow—all this I let drop away, so that I hung with my arms suspended at my sides, the soft current tugging at me (249).

Wash comes upon an octopus under the water, and is suddenly reluctant to have her killed for display. He captures the octopus along with a few other items and resurfaces.

Part 3, Chapter 9 Summary

After the diving expedition, the Goffs invite Wash back to their house for dinner.

Tanna is nervous with Wash in her home, and accidently cuts herself while trying to serve him. While Tanna goes off to patch her wound, Wash expresses his admiration for Tanna to Mr. Goff, who suggests that while he fears social rejection and disdain for his daughter, he might have considered Wash a worthy match had things been different. Mr. Goff asks Wash to illustrate his new tract, as he has “never seen an artist be so meticulous and still bring life to it” (255). Honored by the offer from one of his childhood heroes, Wash agrees.

Tanna returns with dinner and the three eat. During the meal, Wash suggests the possibility of a live exhibition, and the Goffs are both doubtful but intrigued by the possibility it represents. Wash describes their discussion as “bracing, and intimate, the three of us weighing each other’s words with true enthusiasm and consideration” (257). Mr. Goff abruptly informs Wash and Tanna that he will be gone the next weekend to investigate a strange fish specimen, implying that Wash and Tanna could spend the weekend together. He offers Wash a glass of port, signaling his grudging approval of the young man.

Part 3, Chapters 7-9 Analysis

In these chapters, Wash further develops his relationships with Tanna and Mr. Goff, while also exploring his scientific interests. Wash and Tanna’s conversation at his apartment illustrates the ways in which Wash still has trouble bridging the divide between himself and others, even when he desperately wants to. Although both Wash and Tanna have the best of intentions, they still unintentionally misunderstand and insult one another. Because of their pride and their fraught history, communication and intimacy are hazardous even when they both care for one another.

Wash’s explorations while diving in the sea represent the development and fruition of his scientific studies. He finds a new sense of peace in the water while experiencing the unique sensation of submersion while still breathing. When he encounters the octopus, the beauty, fragility, and strangeness of life confronts Wash. Rather than capture the octopus only to kill and display it, Wash wishes there were a way to preserve her beauty for others without sacrificing her life. Wash does capture her and bring her to the service, rather than leave her in the ocean. The octopus seems in some way representative of Wash’s own captivity, while at the same time indicating the possibility of scientific progress without violence or cruelty.

In these chapters, the relationship between Mr. Goff and Wash also deepens, with Mr. Goff eventually offering Wash respect and appreciation. By asking him to illustrate his book and giving tacit acceptance of Wash and Tanna’s fledgling relationship, Mr. Goff indicates that while he fears for Tanna’s future, he nonetheless concedes that Wash is a worthy match. As Wash moves closer toward true adulthood, his relationship with Mr. Goff becomes one between equals.