Tar Baby: Son's Perspective From the Point-Of-View Essay

Tar Baby: Son's Perspective

From the point-of-view of Son, the assimilated, highly educated female protagonist of Toni Morrison's Tar Baby Jadine sees everything that is associated with being African-American ss base and inferior. Jadine is the niece of the butler and cook of the Childs, a wealthy white family. Jadine believes herself to be superior to other African-Americans because of her knowledge of European culture, and her Euro-centric manner. She is beautiful and has worked as a fashion model. But she also feels hollow inside because her education does not validate her identity as a black woman. She is continually pretending to be someone she is not. In contrast, Son believes he has a secure sense of self. He is not impressed by Jadine's fine clothing, accent, and mannerisms, given that they are simulacra of white mannerisms.

It is easy to condemn Jadine's white manners. Son, the representative of black masculinity in the book, continually reproaches Jadine for what he sees as her rejection of his culture and heritage -- what should be her culture and heritage. From Jadine's perspective, the only people she has ever seen commanding real power are whites. Whiteness is associated with literacy and culture, which Jadine aspires to achieve. The blackness which Son represents is associated with ignorance and metaphorical as well as literal darkness.The residents of the Caribbean island where the Childs reside are oppressed and even the black Sydney and Ondine, despite the fact that they work as servants, view other blacks with contempt.

Son is poor, and when he breaks into the Childs' residence he sees wealth on a level which he has never before experienced -- but also utter moral bankruptcy. Jadine is treated like a petted playing, in his eyes. Given the values under which she has been brought up is little wonder that Jadine feels that the more 'white' she can be, the more power she will have. She does not see that the Childs have power over her, culturally and economically, in a way they do not have power over their natural son Michael, whose preferences and attitudes they cannot shape because of his whiteness, maleness, and autonomy. Son sees Jadine as a kind of traitor to her race, someone who is wearing a mask rather than a real identity.

The African-American female role models presented to her reflect an ideal of domesticity and earthiness which Jadine wishes to rise above. Orphaned at birth, Jadine has known nothing but white….....