Summary
Tar Baby by Toni Morrison is a novel that talks about the discord among the whites and the blacks, and the learned biases and prejudices that the characters accord each other. The story highlights these biases based on three different levels: race, gender, and class. The Street household was an interesting setting wherein a mixture of the black and the white, of the slaves and the masters, and those in between live under on roof. The story starts with Valerian and Margaret talking about the menu for the coming Christmas Eve. Valerian had invited some people and his, Michael, was also bound to come. However, no one among those expected to come came, so Valerian decided that they should just eat together: Sydney and Ondine, their long-time house help, Jadine, Sydney and Ondine’s niece, and Son, the man Valerian allowed to stay in his house as guest. Son and Jadine have been flirting with each other before the celebration, and Ondine doesn’t approve of it. Jadine was an educated woman and a model, and Ondine thought Son was not good enough for her. While dining together for the Christmas Eve, Ondine and Valerian had an argument when Valerian told them that he had fired the other three house help. The argument got heated, until Ondine and Margaret started fighting, and Ondine divulged how Maragaret abused Michael when he was young, which explains why he doesn’t come home. Ondine and Sydney went out of the room, while Jadine and Son escaped to Jadine’s room together. Valerian and Margaret were left in the dining room. In Jadine’s room, it was revealed that she had already slept with Son prior to that night. However, she didn’t want to have sex with him that night because she was still shocked about what she learned about Michael. In the course of their conversation, it was apparent that Son was smitten by Jadine, but she was denying her feelings. They met in New York days after the incident, and there they lived together. They were happy, working, drinking, partying, and having a good time. What they believed in didn’t get in the way. Son would always make Jadine feel safe and loves, and at one point, Jadine felt that she loved Son. Because of that she agreed to go home with him in Eloe even though she was against it. However, she was not convinced that it would turn out well like like Son firmly believed, and this was expressed in the way she calculated her money, indicating that when she needs to leave, she would.
The biases and prejudices that existed between and among the characters in the story is not exclusive to this group. Even in the history of the African-Americans’ struggle towards claiming equality, two groups existed: the liberal structuralists, and the conservative behaviorists. Although both groups promote the good of African-Americans, they came from two places and arguments which were not clearly defined. And yet, even if there were two discussions for liberation, the division failed to address the real issue, which was the nihilistic threat to its very existence (West 19). The black civil society started deteriorating, and people were divided. Other powerful and big companies funded some of these people and entice them with the rewards of comfort and convenience, but what was really happening was that they were being divided by the same driving force that refuses to integrate them within the society. There are others like Sydney and Ondine who were given security and privelege to be working in the house of their employer, while the others are struggling outside. There should be unity among them, but instead they were divided. Their attack against people of their kind is an attack altogether to their race, and even if the insult came from one of their kind, the effect is an attack to the culture and lives of everyone in their race (West 29). This kind of annihilation is what undermines the power and hope of everyone on the race.
Critical Analysis: Race Matters (Chapters 7-8)
Another issue that was highlighted in the story was the negative sexual connotation attached among black women. Accordingly, the sexual politics of race among Americans is that black women are funky in sex, dirty, and disgusting, and Americans in general find this interesting (West 120). However, the talk about sex and race in public is considered taboo. These images attached among African-American women was also illustrated in the novel, where Jadine had no qualms about engaging in sexual activities with Son, and was candid about discussing it with him, using straightforward and strong words to refer to things sexual. Yet when it was Ondine and Sydney talking about it, they were not reluctant to put a name to it, but they were firm in not calling it by its name. However, what was worth noticing between these situation was that Jadine and Son would talk about sex when inside the room, but would take great effort not to display anything that could be interpreted as sexual when in the presence of others.
On the other hand, there also those who were like Sydney and Ondine who kept their discussion about Jadine’s sexual activities tame with practically no direct mention of the word. These examples in the story show that unlike prevailing beliefs about black woman sexuality, they are not necessarily promicuous or dirty or disgusting, but rather, are comfortable in their own skin and their expression of their sexuality. There was no coyness about it, and perhaps this could be explained by the idea that they love each other no matter how much they deny it. African-Americans are not promiscuous, but they don’t hold back in expressing their love.
Critical Question
Jadine was a proud woman, but she had conflicting thoughts about what being a woman means and who she really was. Was she constrained by these conflicting thoughts that she had? How did she show it?
References
Morrison, Toni. Tar Baby. New York: Plume. Web.
West, Cornel. Race Matters. New York: Vintage Books. Web.
