Study of quest for self-identity and journey of struggle of a Black Women for self fulfillment
Keywords:
black woman, self-identityAbstract
Tar Baby is the journey of a black woman who struggles to come to terms with her aspirations as a modern materialistic black woman as the metaphor of "tar" indicates. It is the struggle of a modern black woman for self-fulfilment. Jadine is a black woman who ultimately loses her roots from both the worlds, and becomes a double orphan, a pariah figure. At a very early age she has lost her father and mother, and is adopted by her uncle Sidney and aunt Ondine. As Sidney and Ondine work for a white family called the Streets, she is under the care and protection of Valerian and Margaret Streets. As a result, she loses her touch with the worlds of both the Streets and of the Childs. In Jadine Child, Morrison depicts the problems of a contemporary black woman.
References
Barbara Christian, Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition, 1892-1976
(Westport: Greenwood Press, 1980), p. 137.
Lucille P. Fultz, Toni Morrison: Playing with Difference (Urbana: Uni. Of Illinois Press,
, p. 21.
Darryl Pinckney, “Every Which Way,” New York Review of Books , 30 April 1981, p.
Patrick Bryce Bjork, The Novels of Toni Morrison: The Search for Self and Place within
the Community (New York: Peter Lang, 1996), p. 111.
Mayreen Howard, “ Tar Baby,” Toni Morrison: Critical Perspectives, Past and Present,
ed. Henry Louis Gates & K.A. Appiah (New York: Amistad, 1993), p. 20. 10. John
Irving, “ Tar Baby ,” Toni Morrison: Critical Perspectives, Past and Present, p. 23.
