Toni Morrison's Tar Baby Themes

Toni Morrison , the first African – American writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature , has published six novels to date; The Bluest Eye (1970) , Sula (1973 ) , Song of Solomon (1977 ) , Tar Baby (1981 ) , Beloved (1987 ) and Jazz (1992 ). Toni Morrison’s novel have attracted both popular and critical attention for their inventive blend of realism and fantasy , unsparing social analysis , and passionate philosophical concerns . The combination of social observation with broadening and allusive commentary gives her fictions the symbolic quality of myth , and in fact the search for a myth adequate to experience is one of Morrison’s central themes. As her world and characters are inescapably involved with problems of perception , definitions

The novelist has showcased the fundamental cause of the African’s oppression is the exploitative economic system of capitalism and its overseas extension , imperialism . Racism and sexism, although equally oppressive, are treated as by-products of capitalism. Thus, in this novel her increased consciousness is reflected in her ability and commitment to explore this cause and effect relationship between class, race, and

Unlike Pecola Breedlove , who struggles with the question of racial approbations , Sula , who struggles against the traditional role of African women , and the Milkman who individually struggles with the issues of race and class , the two protagonists in Tar Baby must struggle together to resolve their opposing class interests in order to unite . Symbolically , they reflect the schism that exists in the African community , the class conflict that African people must resolve in order to form an effective , unified force against their primary enemy , capitalism. What Morrison does in Tar Baby is raise the question all Africans must ask themselves: Do I identify with my oppressor or my people? In light of this question, Morrison examines several other crucial ones; first, if the African rejects capitalist way of life, what is a viable alternative? Second, can African people negating history by returning to a pre slavery trade, pre-colonial existence? Third, can there exist ' people's capitalism ‘, ' class peace ' or 'class harmony ' between two groups of people whose interests are diametrically opposed? In other words, can Jadine and Son coexist in harmony ? The ending of Tar Baby providesnanswers to all three questions . It reveals Morrisons own clarity in regard to the irreconcilability of the interests of