Tar Baby

“Son looked in vain for children. He couldn’t find them anywhere. There were short people and people under 12 years of age, but they had no child’s vulnerability, no un-stuck laughter”

As with most things in my life, even my love for Toni Morrison stems from Jam. I started this journey of reading Black classics with Their Eyes Were Watching God and had no clue where to go next. I asked my wife what her favorite book was and she replied Sula. See, Jam took a whole class on Toni Morrison in college and at that point, the only Morrison I had read was The Bluest Eye as a sophomore in High School (where roughly 80% of the book flew right over my head). I was immediately hooked after reading Sula, with its challenging characters and raw look into the inner-psyche of a woman unbeholden to the system. Tar Baby is the 5th Morrison book I have read and I like to think that I am just now getting to the lesser known books (and by lesser known I still mean classics just slightly less popular). My goal is to read all of her novels, in something that I read it stated that in her time as an editor and an author she was trying to assemble a Black canon. Each of her novels will be a part of mine. 

So what had happened was…

The novel starts with an unnamed man struggling against the waves trying to make it to a Caribbean island. We are then introduced to Valerian and Margaret Street, a wealthy white couple who have retired to their estate on a small island in the Caribbean. Valerian made his money in the candy business which he inherited then sold, he went on to marry Margaret, a pageant queen from a small town in Maine. Their marriage has since soured. Valerian views his wife as a nuisance to his retirement, she is constantly stressing about company visiting, company including their son who never visits. The Streets have been the benefactors of Jadine, the niece of their now elderly servants and a beautiful Black woman who, on the Street’s dime, studied at the best universities in Europe, becoming a Parisian model. Jadine is the company visiting the Street’s on the opening of the book. Sydney and Ondine are happy to see their niece, but little do they know an interloper has just made his way to the island. Margaret spots a Black man hiding in her closet and lets out a shriek, only answered by Sydney. The Black man, named Son (among other things), had been living at the estate for a few days without the knowledge of any of the Americans in the house. However, the Caribbean staff, whose names their bosses have failed to learn, have been keeping this mysterious man alive by leaving small chocolates out for him. To the horror of Margaret, Valerian invites this stranger not only to dinner, but to stay at his house. Son and Jadine’s relationship starts out rocky as she sees him as little more than a street rat (S/o Aladdin), however she can’t help but find him attractive. This begins a will they or wont they with long glances, lying next to each other, an impactful single finger touching the sole of Jadine’s foot, and an admission of murder by Son. After a heated argument on Christmas day, Ondine reveals that Margaret was an abusive mother to her only child. This breaks Valerian who already in his sunset years, never fully recovers from the knowledge of what his wife did and his son’s perceived preference for his mother over his father. With her uncle and aunt’s employment unknown due to the revelation, Son and Jadine run away together. They fly to New York where they attempt to put a life together, broke but happy. Son is uncomfortable in New York City and brings Jadine to his hometown of Eloe, Florida. Jadine immediately hates it and looks down on the people there. After the couple leaves Eloe and return to New York City, their relationship quickly deteriorates and becomes physically and emotionally abusive. Jadine goes back to the Caribbean island merely to pick up a gift that had been left for her by her Parisian boyfriend, before returning to him. Son follows her and with the assistance of the Caribbean staff, whose names only he knows. The Caribbean staff deceptively trick him into arriving on the wrong side of the island, landing him in the same predicament that he was in at the beginning of the novel. However, this return to his beginning signifies a freedom from his incessant need for Jadine.

Aight so boom…

There is so much I could talk about here, whether it be the diasporic issues or the interplay of why this novel is among her lesser known works and the devaluation of romance novels because of its majority woman based readership.  Nope, Ima talk about me.  The book uses the tar baby story of Brer Rabbit as its framework. I had to go back and relisten to the African American folk tale to catch many of the references. Therein, Brer Rabbit is tricked by Brer Fox into being caught by trapping him with an effigy made of tar. After his capture, Brer Rabbit then tricks Brer Fox into throwing him into a bramble bush which Brer Rabbit deceptively was born in, using the thorns to free himself of the tar covering his fur and escaping. During one of Son’s abusive moments, Son tells Jadine that she is the tar baby placed, not by Brer Fox, but by the white man to trap him. It is important to note that Jadine lives a life of privilege, backed by a retired White couple, accustomed to expensive clothing, and living in the house that her uncle and aunt clean but have never been invited to stay in. In many ways I identified with Jadine, and the way that Capitalism attempts to strip you of the Blackness running through your veins.  Which made me wonder, whether I am the tar baby or Brer Rabbit? I make a salary that I could not have even imagined for myself growing up on 73rd and Clark and have benefitted from Capitalism monetarily (capitalism has messed me up in myriad of other ways-including what I’m currently talking about). Interestingly, my wife and I have a few mocking shorthands for the middle class Black folks we have just recently been granted access to. We use either: Jack & Jill types or Alvin Ailey Blacks.  Both of which seem to be inundated with a group of Black people having a superiority complex about them (very similar to Jadine). I am now their peer, but like Son feel discomfort in their presence. While I am still mulling over the question in regards to myself, I keep coming back to the bramble bush being Brer Rabbit’s savior. I wonder if 73rd and Clark will be mine as I try to find a way out of the trap of capitalism. I wonder if the corner store on 27th and Vega will still let me buy things on credit if needed. I wonder if the pot holes on Dennison will help me shed the tar as I, like Son and Brer Rabbit, run lickety split lickety-split lickety-lickety-lickety-split!