The Water Dancer

Near the end of his time in Philadelphia, Hiram attends a convention of abolitionists and encounters examples of numerous reform movements, including feminism, suffragism, marriage reform, labor reform, and other anti-slavery movements. The Great Convention is symbolic of the powerful 19th-century reform movements that helped propel the movement for abolition. The vignettes from the convention also give Hiram insight into the role of capitalism in other forms of oppression.

Hiram gives Georgie Parks’ son a wooden horse during one of his first visits to discuss whether Parks might be willing to help him leave Lockless. The horse is an offer that symbolizes the respect with which Hiram views Parks before realizing that Parks is a turncoat. Hiram later finds the horse in the remains of Parks’ house after the Quality burn Park’s house down in retaliation for their belief that Parks is indeed an Underground agent. In this instance, the horse is a physical object that represents the consequences of both Parks’ actions and Hiram’s participation in the campaign against him. Finally, the horse is a visual pun: It is the “horse” that carries Hiram’s power, allowing him to focus enough to complete his first successful, directed Conduction. 

Located on the corner of Lockless, the Walker monument is supposed to honor the white ancestors who settled the land that eventually became Lockless. When Hiram is a child, the monument is a favored place for him because it symbolizes his highly idealized notion of his ancestors as pioneers. These men were accompanied by Tasked, who are not memorialized at all. Their absence is an important symbol of the way in which white supremacist histories leave out the contributions of enslaved people to the American founding.

The copper coin appears in Part 1 of the novel when Howell gives Hiram the coin for a particularly skillful and clever performance of a song on the Street. At first, Hiram sees the coin as a symbol of his father’s willingness to recognize him and as a promise of more recognition to come. The coin is a form of recognition of Howell’s ownership of his son and slave; that it is a copper coin (rather than gold or silver) shows how little Howell believes he owes to his son. The coin is also the evidence that Hiram uses to ascertain that Hawkins’ account of finding Hiram on the banks of the Goose after the accident is a lie. In this instance, the coin is symbolic of Hiram’s growing awareness of his actual birthright—the ability to Conduct.

Water is a universal symbol that appears in many cultures. Water can be a symbol of rebirth or transformation, as when Hiram goes into the Goose as a slave dreaming of freedom and emerges as a man with the ability to Conduct. In African-American history, water is an ambiguous symbol. The bodies of slaves who died during the passage from Africa to America (the Middle Passage) were buried in water, so water is a symbol of death in this instance. On the other hand, water is the means by which the African king—whose escape is celebrated in the water dance—escaped back to Africa, so water can be a symbol for deliverance as well.