Summary of Tar Baby
The novel “Tar Baby” tells a story of two love birds, Jadine and Son. When the story starts, we are introduced to Son as he jumps off a merchant ship and swims towards a harbor. Unable to swim to the shore, he clutches onto a nearby yacht and sails away. Upon landing, Son finds himself in a small highland called Isle Des Chevaliers, where a rich man named Valerian Street lives (Morrison, 1). Son then decides to creep into Valerian’s house and hides in Margaret’s, (Valerian wife), bedroom. After an argument with her husband about his habit of always inviting guests to their home (L’Arbe de la Croix) against his wife’s wish, Margaret gets angry and leaves for her room. However, she returns to the living room screaming because a stranger was in her room. Son had slowly crept into Margeret’s room and hid in her closet (Morrison 3). However against many of the family members’ expectations, Valerian invites Son to stay and here he meets, Jadine and other family members including Valerian’s servants (Ondine, Jadine’s aunt, and her husband Sydney) (Morrison, 25).
She is currently a fashion model and a graduate of Sorbonne. On Christmas day, Valerian and his wife argue again after some visitors they had invited fail to show up; she lives her “cooking project” to Ondine. After some revelation by Ondine that Margaret had abused Michael when she was a boy, Valerian goes into shock, and everybody quits the dinner table including Son and Jadine, who seemed to have been getting closer and closer. They quit the home later and go to New York where they live together without jobs. Their relationship, however, breaks up and Jadine returns to France (Morrison, 41).
Summary of Race Matters
This book by Cornel West expresses his view as to the issue of racism in America. He focuses on the political and spiritual aspects that he thinks are factors contributing to racism. As he tries to develop his argument between the two, West argues that a balance between the two is necessary, and he says that his purpose was to speak the truth to those in authority so that the daily lives of ordinary people can be improved and the so-called supremacy of the white race be stripped and rid of its rather legitimate authority (West, 15). In his book, Cornel postulates that the enemy of blacks in American is not exploitation or oppression but rather the absence of meaning and loss of hope amongst the black, something he calls nihilism. To West, however, all is not lost, the rage felt by black Americans can be objectively dealt with and he suggests some concepts that can be used to handle the situation.
West gives his first suggestion that blacks in America should find help, power, and hope by looking to their common history and themselves. To this effects, the nihilism threat that faces America will be suppressed. Secondly, West feels that black Americans must now seek a different brand of leadership that seeks to the public and will always act for the good of the public (West 16). Cornel then makes a plea to that playing the politics of conversion will ultimately help to handle the nihilistic threat that has resulted in the feeling of rage amongst black Americans. He argues that to cut off the threat of nihilism from the American society, we do not need analyses and or unending arguments, rather, the appropriate approach to it is leadership driven by loving and caring characters (West, 31).
West summarizes by looking and liberalism notion that has helped to initiate some help for blacks from the American government, however, West argues that mere help from the American government does not help to solve the fundamental problem. He notes that it is wrong for conservatives to criticize blacks for committing crime while ignoring the circumstances that have informed the commission of such crime (West, 24).
Question based on Tar Baby
Jadine has interacted with the outside world, from a little age, she was adopted by her aunt and lived with the Valerians, “a family of wealthy whites.” She is portrayed as having being sponsored to wealth through the Valerians who even paid for her education in Sorbonne. This means that throughout her life, Jadine has had little exposure to the cultures and ways of African Americans. However, it upon this fact that she does not conform to the ways of her “origin” that she is criticized and being dubbed someone who has lost her identity. This is even used to illustrate the difference between whites and black in the play as it pertains to racial acceptance.
On the other hand, we have a general feeling that as a society, it is important to embrace each other, whites, blacks or any other. It’s as a result of us not embracing each other that we are considered racists or tribalists. We also appreciate human freedom of choice and is also importance to note in this story is that Jadine grew in a white’s home, and therefore she learnt and conformed to the ways of the whites. A question that comes out of this, therefore, is, why would Jadine be considered to have lost her identity and copied the ways of the whites yet she had grown in a family of whites? Isn’t it unfair to consider her to have left her identity yet she didn’t have a chance to live in an environment that could influence her identity to be that of the blacks? This is the fundamental question that one would ask out of the story. It seems that Jadine is being blamed for her identity, yet she did not have the power to influence what type of environment she would like to grow in and therefore what type of identity to possess. In solving the problem of racism and racial discrimination, it is important to ask this question as some aspects considered as embracing other races’ ways are not helpful.
Works cited
West, C. (2004). Race matters. David Barsamian/Alternative Radio.
Morrison, T. (2015). Tar baby. Christian Bourgois. Print
