BRER FOX AND BRER RABBIT IN TONI MORRISON’S TAR BABY

Abstract

Toni Morrison has borrowed from her African heritage to criticizethe Afro- Americans acculturation to the WASP (white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant) culture. Morrison’s novel addresses blacksand whites. The prologue harangues a message that everyone hasa certain position to occupy and a specific function to achieve, andthat nobody is better than the others. Weak things are found to producemighty things, and base things are found to bring glory to theworld. Hence, blacks are not lesser than whites.The novel is based on a legend about animal characters in a fabletale, Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit. The term «Tar Baby» is used as aderogatory term for black people in the US, but Morrison gives theterm a positive connotation.The characters waver between assimilating to the white dominantculture and preserving one’s African cultural heritage,i.e, Jadineis a «race traitor» who is acculturated to the materialistic values ofthe white culture. She willingly embraces the white culture, attemptingto stripe her African identity off racial and national titles, simplyshowing off her naked self. Son makes Jadine feel that her denial ofblack heritage and her family is disgusting. He wants to rescue herfrom the white world and brings her back to the Eloe.The novel highlights the dangers of assimilation and acculturation.Toni Morrison wants to tell the readers that women cannot befeminine without appreciating their African heritage first, and thatthe dominant white culture destroys African Americans’ self-image.The novelist highlights the importance of adhering to her Africanroots and renounces the idea of uprooting African heritage throughsuperabundant assimilation or acculturation to the white culture.

Keywords

Toni Morrison