Washington Black

Back in his own room, Wash has an idea for an aquarium that will preserve Goff’s specimens and keep them alive. He collects plant life by the sea, realizing that fish and aquatic plant life need one another to survive in a closed environment. Wash joins Medwin on a trip to Halifax to consult a foreman about the possible construction of the aquarium. When Wash comes home, he draws out plans for the tank and constructs it himself. Wash is eager to impress Tanna with his creation, writing “[I] prayed in the end that I could give her something to draw out the astonishment in her fine, sharp face” (261). Wash goes to an eatery to order food and continues his calculations for the fish tank at his table. While he works, Willard approaches him. As the man speaks to him, Wash is calm and resigned, “filled with a bitter sense of inevitability” (263).

Willard tells Wash a story about riding a carriage through the plains of America and coming to a village full of scarecrow dolls. According to Willard’s tale, the children of the village became sick and were sent away, and the old people of the village died or moved, until there was just one woman left.