Toni Morrison was born February 18, 1931. She is the GOAT of American Literature.
Tar Baby is Toni Morrison’s fourth novel, published in 1981. Set on a private Caribbean island, New York City and a small Florida town, it is a novel that grapples head on with race, sex, class, and the relationship black Americans have with both the past and future.
The novel begins shortly before Christmas on L’Arbe de la Croix, a private island owned by an American candy magnate named Valerian Street. Street has retired to the island with his wife Margaret and their two servants, Sydney and Ondine Childs. Margaret, a former beauty queen, is unhappy on the island and is desperately hoping that their grown son Michael will visit for the holiday. Valerian delights in baiting his wife, who seems to have some sort of neurological issues and has an uneasy relationship with Ondine. Sydney and Ondine are pleased that their niece Jadine has come for a visit. Jadine, thanks to financial help from Valerian, has completed her studies at the Sorbonne and embarked on a successful career as a model in Europe. She is being romantically pursued by a white European man, and is considering marrying him, when the arrival of a stranger on the island throws her life and everyone else’s into turmoil.
William Green, aka Son, has jumped ship and is in hiding on the island. When he is discovered, in a most dramatic fashion, Margaret, Sydney, Ondine and Jadine expect that the local authorities will be called to haul him away. Valerian, on the other hand, has other ideas. He is intrigued by Son and, unbelievably, invites him to sit down and dine with them. Then he invites Son to stay in a guest room and buys him clothes. Margaret is terrified and furious with her husband, as are Sydney, Ondine and Jadine. Sydney and Ondine, who have served the Streets for their entire adult life, are not just afraid of Son because of the potential danger he presents; they are also angry and offended that this man is invited to the table to dine with the Streets. The fact that Jadine is also invited to dine with them while they are not is not the same thing in their eyes. Jadine is disgusted by Son, who is dirty and smells, but she is also afraid of the feelings he might unleash within her. Everyone is surprised that Son was able to hide for as long as he did on the island, everyone except Gideon and Therese, the local people who boat to the island daily to manage the yard and do laundry. They detected Son’s presence early on, but said nothing. There is no love lost between them and Sydney, Ondine and Jadine. Gideon and Therese think they are snobs; Sydney, Ondine and Jadine, like the Streets, don’t even know Gideon and Therese’s names. They are simply referred to as Yardman and Mary. All local women of color who work for them are Marys.
In the days leading up to Christmas, Son’s attempts to get along with Sydney, Ondine and Jadine have mixed results. Sydney and Ondine are of the school of thought that he ought to “clean up his life.” They came from Philadelphia, where the black community they knew included people who worked hard, had their own stores, taught, and made a better life for themselves and their children. But Son rejects this way of living, thinking, “There was something wrong with the rites. He had wanted another way.” When Jadine asks him what he wants out of life, he says that he will not equate work or making money with life. This leads to an interesting conversation about what constitutes success in life and reveals Jadine’s hardline practical side and her willingness to work within the system presented to her, versus Son’s rejection of it.
Christmas dinner at the Streets’ might be the most dysfunctional Christmas dinner in literature, exposing the rifts within the Street family, between the Streets and the Childs’, and among the Childs’, Son and the locally hired help. After this dinner, the story moves off the island to New York, which is Jadine’s base, and Eloe, Florida, which is Son’s home. And in this part of the novel, Morrison examines the pull between the black American past and the future. Jadine is a modern woman who has made it in the white world. Son longs to return to his home in Florida and the women who nurtured him there.
One had a past, the other a future and each one bore the culture to save the race in his hands. Mama-spoiled black man, will you mature with me? Culture-bearing black woman, whose culture are you bearing?
Can these two worlds be reconciled? Meanwhile, back at L’Arbe de la Croix, the Streets and the Childs have to figure out how they can continue to live together knowing what they now know. I won’t spoil with details, but the conversation that Margaret and Ondine have is one that is relevant to relations between black and white women still today. It’s unsettling, as it should be.
With every novel of Morrison’s that I read, I am more convinced that she is the greatest American novelist. Ever. Full stop. The characters, their interactions, the themes regarding race, history, class, sex, etc. are just written brilliantly and beautifully. The narratives haunt the reader long after the book has been put down and challenge our way of looking at history, art, economics, each other. They are timeless.