"Stars just throb and throb and throb and sometimes, when they can't throb anymore, when they can't hold it anymore, they fall out of the sky."

Usually I'm okay with the race issue, but the way it was presented in Tar Baby didn't thrill me. I just realized I'm not sure whether the character of Jadine is black or mixed, I just know that she is light skinned. Regardless, she represents what I think is a misrepresentation of most mixed people, as well as educated black people. Yes, it's true that there are some people of color who use education as a means of disassociating themselves with their culture. Yes, Jadine sees the world, and is given the gift of education by a white man while her aunt and uncle serve in his house. But that doesn't make her a traitor to her family and her race. I felt like it was very easy for Morrison to go ahead and give Jadine a bad connotation simply because of her opportunities.

Funny, I feel like I can identify with Jadine even though I'm in no way a model, nor have I ever been to Paris. However, I think it's a crime to be uneducated, especially with the amount of resources available to people in order to learn. I have lived my life around a lot of uneducated black people and I just can't wrap my mind around living that way. So I've acquired education and I refuse to be ashamed of that. And I'm not sure exactly what it is, but apparently, somehow by being educated I've distanced myself from the African-American race. I've been accused of 'not being black,' being an 'Oreo,' and even hating black people, many times. But why is that the way it is? I don't understand how being educated is white, and being uneducated, or seeming to be so, is black. That sounds so, so stupid. It is so, so stupid. And because being black is associated with being uneducated, I've wrongfully been accused of avoiding black people, when really it's uneducated people I find not worthy of my time.

Tar Baby has many other interesting aspects, specifically the relationships between whites and blacks, between men and women, and among blacks themselves. I feel that it is definitely a book I will have to read again later in my life. Maybe I'll understand it more.

If I had to rank the books thus far, I'd say:

1. The Bluest Eye
2. Song of Solomon
3. Sula
4. Tar Baby

Tar Baby just...wasn't. I don't know. I'll admit that towards the end, I was able to get a little bit into it. It wasn't a hard book to finish, but the first half was killer. Regardless it took me way too long to read, I'm running out of time. As I plow through the rest of the novels, I'm kinda hoping Morrison gives me a character who goes out, sees the world, gains some knowledge, and isn't see as a bad person.

Two weeks left before Oberlin. Thank goodness.

Chinwe