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Chapter 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tar Baby, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Systemic Racism and Power
Expectations of Womanhood
Colonialism and Enslavement
Toxic Masculinity
Innocence and Guilt
Summary
Analysis
Jadine tells Margaret that she saw Valerian and the man laughing in the greenhouse together. Margaret wonders what’s wrong with Valerian and says she’s not going to sleep another night with that man in the house. Margaret and Jadine both refer to the man using a slur. They decide not to leave their rooms for the rest of the day. The next time they see the man, he looks so beautiful that they forget about their plans to make sure that he leaves.
Margaret and Jadine both reveal their racism when they both refer to the man using a racist slur. That racism reinforces the hierarchy on the island, in which proximity to whiteness grants one power. Jadine and Margaret assert their power over the man, referring to him with a racial slur, to try to close the power gap that exists between the women and Valerian.
Themes
When Jadine leaves her room, the man enters it. He looks at her things before going into the bathroom. He takes a shower and brushes his teeth. He grabs a robe, leaves his pajamas on the bathroom floor, then goes back to his room. The man knows that they’re all afraid of him, except for Valerian, who knows that he (the man) is not there to rape the women.
The man shows no regard for Jadine’s privacy or personal space and treats Jadine’s things as if they were his own, indicating his perceived sense of ownership over her. In claiming Jadine in this way, he asserts masculine dominance and takes back some of the power that society has denied him due to his race.
Themes
The man recalls how he arrived at the Streets’ house. After jumping overboard, he snuck onto a boat driven by two women. Once on shore, he circled the Streets’ house, not knowing who it belonged to. He saw a piano in the window and recalled playing piano at a neighbor’s house while growing up. When he entered the war, he dreamed of one day playing in a nightclub. After he was dishonorably discharged, he did play for a while in a club, but he was never especially good.
This passage tells a narrative in miniature of the man’s life. He sees the piano in the Streets’ house, and it reminds him of the purity of his childhood dreams. But when it came time to actually accomplish those dreams, he had been dishonorably discharged from the military—failing at one pursuit—before realizing that his childhood dreams were just that: dreams. In other words, his life has not turned out at all as he expected, and his resulting frustration animates many of his actions and decisions.
Themes
While living on the outskirts of the Streets’ house, the man looked for food at night and slept during the day. He tried to come up with a plan for what to do next. He started going into the house at night and found Jadine asleep in one of the rooms. He watched her sleep, and his desire for her grew. He thought that he would have to come up with a story to tell the people in the house. He had been running and hiding for eight years. During this time, he relied on several different identities to get by. But the name that felt the truest to him, Son, couldn’t be found on any documents.
Son reveals that Jadine, more than anything, kept him fixated on the Streets’ house. The narration describes Son’s fixation in terms of desire; Son wants Jadine, so he tries to find a way to “get” her. He aims to pursue that desire at all costs, inventing stories to tell the Streets and living in the woods for days on end. That single-minded fixation will later be revealed to be one of the hallmarks of Son’s story throughout the novel.
Themes
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In the greenhouse, Valerian recalls the woman who used to do laundry at their house in Philadelphia when he was a child. Each day, she would ask him what his father was doing, and Valerian would tell her. The woman asked the same question on the day Valerian’s father died, and he responded, “He’s dead today.” To distract Valerian from his grief, the woman asked him to help her with the laundry. The family’s butler heard what happened and told Valerian not to help the woman with her work. Not long after, the family fired her. But that’s why Valerian had a separate laundry room built on the island. He liked to be reminded of his childhood home and of the woman who did hard but useful work there.
This passage shows how unjust power structures have defined Valerian’s life since childhood. The woman who worked for Valerian’s family treated him kindly, but she was fired because others perceived her actions as overstepping strictly outlined hierarchical roles. Notably, Valerian focuses not on the injustice of the woman being fired for acting kindly but on his own nostalgia for that kindness. On the island, he has then nostalgically tried to replicate the setting of his childhood without questioning the overarching power structures that destroyed his childhood innocence. His failure to question these power structures, in turn, leads him to perpetuate the injustices that harmed him (and more directly, the woman who worked for the family) in the first place.
Themes
Valerian has been seeing visions of his first wife recently. She died a year before Valerian retired. Each time Valerian sees a vision of her, she tells him how glad she is that she had the two abortions she did while they were married. Valerian feels like he can’t tell Margaret that he wants Michael to come for Christmas even more than she does. When Son appeared in the kitchen the night before, Valerian thought of how he used to rescue Michael from his hiding place under the sink. When Valerian invited Son to stay, he thought that both the younger and older versions of Michael would have been surprised and pleased by what Valerian did.
Valerian reveals not only that he deeply misses Michael, but also that he views Son as a kind of surrogate for Michael (hence the symbolic name “Son”). Moreover, Valerian’s thoughts show that he wants Michael to be proud of him, and he thinks that inviting Son to stay would be one way to accomplish that. But the scene also implicitly asks whether symbolic good deeds (which is how Valerian understands inviting Son to stay) can truly counteract systemic injustices.
Themes
Valerian thinks that calling the police about Son now would be an admission that he had been wrong to invite him to stay, which would cause him to lose face in front of his family. He also understands Michael’s socialist beliefs better now. Before, Valerian thought that Michael’s forays in anthropology and social justice resulted in an unintentional exoticization of other people. Now, Valerian is disappointed that no one else has stood up for Son. And Valerian has enjoyed seeing the house fall into disarray after he invited Son to stay.
Valerian’s delight in seeing the house in disarray might seem like he is meaningfully aligning himself with Michael’s “socialist” beliefs by dismantling the hierarchy that has granted him so much privilege. In actuality, though, his delight reinforces what has always been true about Valerian as a character: he relishes his power, and inviting Son to stay only highlights how much power he has over everyone else in the house.
Themes
Son walks into the greenhouse wearing a woman’s kimono. Valerian asks Son what he was doing in Margaret’s closet the night before. Son says he thought it was Jadine’s room. Valerian tells Son to ask Sydney to get him some clothes and says that he’ll look into getting Son papers so he can stay on the island. Son gives Valerian advice about the flowers in the greenhouse and says he knows about plants. He then tells a lewd joke, and Valerian laughs. That’s the laughter that Jadine hears in the greenhouse when she goes to tell Valerian what Son did to her.
This passage highlights the complicity among men that perpetuates toxic masculinity. When Son says that he had only been in Margaret’s room because he thought it was Jadine’s, Valerian doesn’t bat an eye, tacitly signing off on Son’s disregard for Jadine’s boundaries. And just after Son has seemingly threatened Jadine with sexual violence, he tells a lewd joke to Valerian, which Valerian laughs at. That then forms the bonds of a sinister kind of fraternity that literally and metaphorically excludes Jadine, who stands just outside the greenhouse.
Themes
Sydney brings Son clothes. Valerian then sends Son to town with Thérèse and Gideon to get a haircut. Thérèse cooks him a meal and asks questions about the U.S. Gideon tells Son about the story of blind people descended from enslaved people and says that the Isle des Chevaliers is named after them. Their ship went down, and they landed on the shore with the horses on the ship. He says that Thérèse is descended from those people, but he’s not because Thérèse and his mother had different fathers. Gideon says that Thérèse doesn’t like the Streets. They fired her, but then Gideon brought her back to work and said it was a new person, and they didn’t notice. He also says that he pretends he can’t read so they won’t give him extra work to do.
Gideon reveals the extent to which the Streets, and Valerian in particular, dehumanize the Black islanders who work for them. Not only can Valerian not be bothered to learn Gideon’s or Thérèse’s name, but he also doesn’t register that Thérèse is a distinct person. That dehumanization stands in stark contrast to Valerian’s newly expressed sympathy with Michael’s ideas of socialism and reveals the hypocrisy that seems to animate much of Valerian’s life: he wants to consider himself a decent person, but his actions repeatedly point to all the ways he has failed to be a decent person.
Themes
When Son returns to the house, he asks Jadine if he can play the piano. He tries to play, but his fingers won’t do what he wants them to. He then apologizes to Jadine for what happened the day before. Jadine says she doesn’t forgive him and that he should also apologize to Sydney and Ondine. Jadine thinks she’s just as much of a mess as he is. She’s also alarmed by his good looks. She’s 25, which she thinks is a silly age because it’s too old to dream like a teenager and too young to settle down.
Jadine’s self-doubt in this scene casts her as a confused young person trying to make her way in the world while also figuring out who she is and what she cares about. The book then becomes, in a sense, a coming-of-age story, with the story following Jadine as she struggles to navigate confusing power dynamics and competing hierarchies.
Themes
Son goes to Sydney and Ondine’s apartment. Only Ondine is there, and Son apologizes to her for causing her alarm. He explains that after his wife died, he wrecked a car, couldn’t pay for the repairs, and was jailed as a result. So he fled Florida before he got sent to jail then jumped off his ship and landed on the Isle des Chevaliers. Ondine seems to accept Son’s apology, but then Sydney returns and tells Son to leave the apartment—and that if it were up to Sydney, Son would have a bullet between his eyes. To try and assuage Sydney’s concerns, Son asks if there’s another place he can sleep because he doesn’t feel comfortable in the guest room. He also asks if he can eat in the kitchen with Sydney and Ondine, and they say he can.
By apologizing to Sydney and Ondine, Son tries to restore the house’s former balance, which he upset the day before, though the genuineness of Son’s apologies and the truthfulness of his stories remains unclear. That is, the novel lets the reader wonder whether Son is trying to manipulate people to get something he wants, or if he is being more forthright now that he realizes that that is the only path forward. Sydney’s response is telling: he doesn’t believe or trust Son. Moreover, Sydney also reveals how much he is willing to disagree with Valerian when Valerian isn’t around, highlighting the ways that Sydney has to silence himself to keep his job.
Themes
By the end of the meal they share in the kitchen, Ondine has softened toward Son, and Sydney is less combative toward him. That night, everyone in the house seems in good spirits. Valerian talks about Michael’s visit as if it will actually happen, and Margaret feels like Son is harmless. Son feels like he’s convinced everyone except for Jadine. For eight years, Son has been homeless and living without documentation. The next day, Son asks Jadine if she would like to get lunch with him.
Regardless of the sincerity or lack thereof of Son’s motives, his attempts to restore balance to the house seem to have been effective. Notably, those efforts to restore order have gotten Son closer to Jadine, which is what he has wanted from the beginning. Son, then, seems to have the ability to get people to like him while also getting what he wants from them.
Themes
Jadine hastily throws together unappetizing foods to make sure Son knows they’re not going for a real picnic. After they eat, Jadine sits down to sketch Son and asks him what he wants in life. He says he wants his “original dime,” the first dime he made while working. He says he wants something simple and personal. Jadine says that makes him lazy, and Son says he’s not lazy—he’s just not excited by money. He tells Jadine about the town in Florida where he’s from, Eloe. It’s the best place in the world, but he hasn’t been back in eight years. He says that he had to leave after he killed someone and that he regrets killing that person.
Son’s ideas about his “original dime” animate his general outlook on life. His original dime represents the idea of a source of income that exists outside of systemically racist structures of power. Notably, Son links that idea of his “original dime” to his hometown of Eloe. For Son, Eloe represents a vision of a community meaningfully separate from prevailing systemically racist and unjust power structures.
Themes
Son tells Jadine that he came home from work one day and found his wife having sex with a 13-year-old boy. Son drove his car through the bedroom wall, and the car exploded. He dragged his wife Cheyenne out of the fire, but she died. The boy lived. Sensing Jadine’s fear, Son tells her that he won’t kill her and that he loves her. Jadine tells him she doesn’t want anything to do with him and asks why he would say a thing like that.
Son reveals that he has a history of acting violently toward women when women go against his wishes. His response to Jadine’s fear is also telling; he says that he won’t kill her, which only serves to make Jadine more afraid.
Themes
Son says that he was trying to comfort her. He says that Jadine tucked her feet under herself, so he thought she was afraid. Jadine tells him he’s crazy. He asks to see her feet again, so he’ll know she’s not afraid. She puts her legs out from under her, and Son touches her foot. Jadine isn’t sure what to think or feel and says she has to get back to the house. On the drive back home, Jadine goes over all the reasons that she will not have sex with Son. On the drive back, they run out of gas, and Son walks to get more. Jadine takes shelter from the sun under nearby trees but then steps into mud and gets stuck. She knows if she tries to pull herself out, she’ll get stuck more. After minutes of making small motions, she’s able to get out, but she’s visibly shaken when Son comes back.
Jadine is drawn to Son against her better judgment. She’s just listened to him tell her about murdering his wife, and she became more afraid after he said that he wouldn’t kill her. But she still feels attracted to him and tries to consciously dispel that attraction. The mud Jadine gets stuck in could represent the various outside forces that seek to control or define her: she has been sucked into the life of relative power and material comfort her proximity to Valerian or Rye grants her. On the other hand, her budding attraction to Son presents her with a potential opportunity to live a more authentic life as a Black woman. Son’s return after Jadine has escaped from the mud suggests that he might offer her a way to distance herself from the Streets.
Themes
Back at the house, Jadine explains what happened to Margaret. Margaret says that Son is bad luck. Jadine reassures her that Michael will come home for Christmas. Jadine is surprised when she also hears herself defending Son. She wants to tell Margaret that Son doesn’t want her—he wants Jadine. She can’t believe that she feels jealous of Margaret because Son hid in Margaret’s closet instead of hers.
Jadine’s attraction to Son continues to defy all her ideas about what is reasonable, even driving her to be jealous of Margaret because Son mistook Margaret’s room for Jadine’s. Jadine’s attraction to Son and the crisis of identity that results also build on the story’s coming-of-age narrative.
Themes
