Tar Baby

“He had nothing in mind to say if anyone suddenly appeared. It was better not to plan, not to have a ready-made story because, however tight, prepared stories sounded most like a lie. The sex, weight, the demeanor of whomever he encountered would inform and determine his tale.”

Son hesitates to share his true identity with anyone, and instead crafts identities based on reactions others may have to him and on how he wants others to see him. In this case, as he hides after jumping ship, he prepares himself to be found by not preparing, relying instead on his ability to craft an identity and story based on who finds him.

“Ondine tried, unsuccessfully, for months to get a Mary who would work inside. With no explicit refusal or general explanation each Mary took the potatoes, the pot, the paper sack and the paring knife outdoors to the part of the courtyard the kitchen opened onto. It enraged Ondine because it gave the place a nasty, common look.”

Ondine is very critical of the “Marys” who come with Gideon to the house. She tries to keep the atmosphere of L’Arbe de la Croix refined and believes that Thérèse’s refusal to work in the house makes the house look low-class. It reflects her own standards and her tendency to look down on the other staff who help her keep the household running.

“I wonder if the person he wants to marry is me or a black girl? And if it isn’t me he wants, but any black girl who looks like me, talks and acts like me, what will happen when he finds out that I hate ear hoops, that I don’t have to straighten my hair, that Mingus puts me to sleep, that sometimes I want to get out of my skin and be only the person inside—not American—not black—just me?”

Jadine confronts others’ expectations of her racial identity frequently in Tar Baby, and in this instance, she is up against her white boyfriend’s expectations. She suspects that he is only interested because she is a Black woman, but she also wonders if this singular obsession of his prevents him from seeing her as the person she actually is. His expectations of who she is are defined by her racial identity and create a disconnect between them.