Essay Questions

How does Black become interested in drawing and painting?

When Black is a slave in Barbados, he is asked by the slavemaster's brother to be his assistant. While working as Titch's assistant, Black is tutored and taught how to read, write, and draw. Black becomes particularly interested in drawing, seeing it as an escape from his current life as a slave. This passion continues long after he escapes, and represents his ambition and achievement.

Where do Black and Titch escape to?

Black and Titch escape from the plantation after Phillip kills himself, and the men understand that Black will be framed for his murder. They travel to Norfolk in Virginia by boat, where they are looked after by Edgar, who is a family friend.

The white savior is a common trope in popular media where a white character rescues "helpless" black characters from their unfortunate circumstances. Does this novel contribute to or subvert this trope, and how do the characters' actions portray this?

On the surface, this novel appears to have some of the main elements of a major "white savior" story. Washington is saved from his life as a slave and brought into the magical world of science by Titch, a rich white man. Later, Washington's vision for the Ocean House is realized by the help of Goff, another white scientist. Washington is bitter about Goff's help though, and recognizes that even if it might be the only way to bring his scientific discoveries to light, Goff getting the recognition for his work is still not fair. The message that the novel gives about the white savior trope is highlighted most when Washington goes to confront Titch in Morocco. When speaking with Tanna and later Titch, Washington realizes that Titch "saved" Wash only when he needed him for his cloud-cutter and abandoned him when that need was reversed. Titch's reaction to this accusation though shows that he truly believed he was doing good, and couldn't understand the betrayal and abandonment that Wash felt because of his actions. Without this later context, the story could fall into the white savior trope, but Washington's questioning of the motives of his white "saviors" inherently subverts it.

The settings of this novel vary from Morocco to the Arctic Circle. What impact did this choice in settings have on the characterizations and plot?

One of the main ideas in this novel is the contrast between freedom and slavery. Traveling between Barbados, the Arctic, Nova Scotia, England, Amsterdam, and Morocco would make any character come across as adventurous, but for an ex-slave it runs deeper than that. Washington was able to travel the world, even travel where he wanted independently in the second half of the book. The contrast between this and his mother Big Kit, who dreamt of dying just so she could escape Barbados and return to her homeland, is extreme. It goes against the old racist excuses for slavery that are indirectly mentioned in the book; that there are traits inherent to black people that make them well-suited to or even better off as slaves, such as a lack of dreams, dedication, or intelligence. Washington being placed in all these settings, and showing determination, kindness, and talent in all of them gives a glimpse at the possibilities that black people of this time period could have had in a world that didn't force them into terrible circumstances.