Quest for Self by Jadine and Sula in Toni Morrison’s Tar Baby and Sula

Abstract

Toni Morrison’s novelsTar BabyandSula warn questions, reflect reality aswell as show path for change and quest for identity. These novels focus on thedifficulties African Americans face in trying to achieve a sense of identity andindividual freedom in a society dominated by white cultural values. InTar Baby, Jadineis in an existential crisis and a cultural orphan before encountering with Son. Totallyalienated from her own culture, Jadine runs after other’s culture andwas isolated fromher individual self and freedom. It is Son whose intimacy compelled her to hunt for herancestral African past, pursuit of inner self and realization of being black. Jadine andSon not only become the lovers but also the rescuer of eachother after fleeing from theisland. Son is rooted in the past whereas Jadine forgets it, which makes her free andafter its clear perceptions she returns to Paris. Thus, Jadine discovers what sheconsiders to be her “real self.” In the same way protagonist Sula inSula,wanders hereand there in search of individual self. She realizes herself “neither white nor male”under the discrimination and domination of Afro-American males and experiencesinjustice in that. She tries to pave the way for her real identification and existence ofbeing black. Her haunt for her real self makes her restless, dependent, curious andfreedom centered. Therefore, she leaves Bottom, “The black world” for more than adecade, and visits different places, goes to college, travels, and has sex in a quest tomake “myself”. The different experiences with different places and people compelledher to gain higher education, perceive the fact and reality of life and understand her own“self”. Then she returns Bottom and implements herexperiences in reality. There sheenjoys her freedom and independence, establishing a new pattern of life. Her realization of “They do not worth more than me” is the result of her quest. Thus, these two novelsdeal with quest, experiences, realization andgain of individual self in thediscrimination of two worlds.