Reading Tar Baby Through a Psychoanalytic Lens
There are six basic branches to look for and analyze when it comes to discussing the psyche:
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Tar Baby can be easily read through a psychoanalytic lens because its' characters beautifully display the six branches to look for when analyzing anything psychologically. Each character can be seen to model at least one or more of the above branches. Margret Street is the main segue for the unconscious and conscious conflict leading toward neurotic tendencies and anxiety. Her unconscious musings of her son and his dislike for her are masked by her frequent conscious fabrications of his reverence and joy of seeing his mother, when in reality Michael only puts up with her when she smothers him so that her levee will not break, so to speak. Valerian also displays his conflicts between his deteriorating conscious and unconscious views of reality by his rapid downward slope into invalidity. Michael demonstrates how a person's personality is defined by events that occurred in early childhood because since his mother abused him as a young child, he feels the need to be kind, forgiving, and help those less fortunate than he in the performance of his community service. His abuse also results in his contempt for his father and his virtual estrangement from his mother. The relationship between Jadine and Son really establishes the validity of the first three branches; their relationship is driven in completion by their mutual unconscious and irrational drives -- sexually, emotionally, and mentally. In chapters seven and nine, the tension that is brought on by the attempts to bring their unconscious drives to both their consciousnesses is manifested in intense arguments and physical or mental brutality for both parties in the relationship. The reader can pick up on all of these sustained traits rapidly and in depth throughout the novel.