An Analysis Of Black Identity Issues In Tar Baby From The Perspective Of Homi Bhabha’s Post-colonialism

Toni Morrison is an outstanding representative of black culture. Her unique narrative way, poetic language and masterly use of myth and folklore make each of her novels obtain great success and has an impact in the black literature. Taking Tar Baby as this thesis’ s research object and focusing on African American’s issues of identity in the white mainstream society. In contemporary society, the Africans are not free from psychic damage caused by colonialism and the whole nation is immersed in the shadow of the past. With the use of Homi Bhabha’s post colonialism, the understanding and awareness of black identity in Tar Baby can be strengthened, which provides a way out of cultural dilemma for African Americans and points out that only by returning to the past, inheriting traditional black culture, meanwhile taking in the excellence of the white culture, black people can be truly survival in this world.This thesis mainly makes use of Homi Bhabha’s post colonialism theory to analyze cultural identity issues in Tar Baby. Applying Bhabha’s hybridity, unhomeliness to this novel, the difficult process of cultural identity reconstruction is elaborated and the importance of traditional black culture for African Americans is emphasized. Due to the identity of the other, the black suffer all kinds of misfortune, they are not only unsatisfied on the material, but also have a sense of unhomeliness on the spirit. Although there is conflict between the black culture represented by Son and the white culture represented by Jadine, they are attracted by each other subconsciously. At the end of Tar Baby, Son’s behaviour of going ahead to look for Jadine indicates the black’s possibility of searching for correct cultural identity. What Morrison wants to tell black people is that extreme choice of cultural identity is unrealistic and inappropriate. For the Africans, in order to survive in the white dominated society, the most appropriate way is to merge together the two conflicting culture.