A Study Guide for Toni Morrison's "Tar Baby"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Toni Morrison's "Tar Baby," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students.This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Mar 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535841399

Book preview

Tar Baby

Toni Morrison

1981

Introduction

Tar Baby, by Toni Morrison, was published in 1981. It is Morrison's fourth novel and is frequently overlooked in favor of her more widely read novels such as The Bluest Eye (1970), Song of Solomon (1977), and the Pulitzer Prizewinning Beloved (1987). Although it is not one of Morrison's more famous novels, it has received significant critical attention over the years, and Morrison has been lauded for her implementation of folklore in the work. Morrison has stated that she used folk takes to recall the importance of storytelling in her childhood. Like many of Morrison's other novels, Tar Baby showcases minorities and women, though it is one of her few works that feature major Caucasian characters as well. The work deals with themes of ethnic identity and gender roles, as the main character, Jadine, attempts to define herself between two cultures. The novel includes several graphic scenes involving sex, violence, and strong language. It is available in a 2004 paperback edition by Vintage.

Author Biography

Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio, to Ella Ramah Willis and George Wofford. She did not become known as Toni Morrison until the publication of her first novel, The Bluest Eye, which she published under that pseudonym. As Morrison grew up, her family had a profound influence on her. Her maternal grandparents relocated from the South to Ohio in search of greater opportunities in a time when racism against African Americans was still rampant. Both Morrison's grandparents and her parents stressed the importance of education. Morrison excelled throughout her early education and spent time working as a helper in the Lorain Public Library when she was a teenager.

Although Morrison had aspirations to become a dancer when she graduated from high school, she ended up majoring in English and minoring in the classics at Howard University. She continued her studies in English literature at Cornell University, graduating with a master's degree in 1955. She wrote her master's thesis on suicide as a literary construct in the work of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner.

Following the completion of her master's degree, Morrison accepted a position as a professor at Texas Southern University. After just two years at Texas Southern, Morrison returned to Howard University as an English Instructor. There she met Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect, whom she married in 1958. In 1961, Morrison gave birth to her first child, a son named Harold. Morrison's marriage was an unhappy one, and in 1963, she left Howard University and took her son to Europe to travel. In 1964, Morrison returned to the United States, divorced her husband, and gave birth to her second