Tar Baby: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

Jadine sits in the restaurant at the Old Queen Hotel. She calls L’Arbe de la Croix and tells Ondine that she missed the ferry and needs a ride to the island. Jadine is proud of herself for leaving Son without telling him she was going or where she would be. When Jadine arrives at the house, she goes upstairs to get her things and sees Margaret cleaning out clothes from Valerian’s closet. Margaret asks if Jadine will be staying for long, and Jadine says she’ll leave tomorrow. Margaret assumes she’s returning to France to marry Ryk, but Jadine says she’s not going to marry him and changes the subject. Margaret says that Valerian has recently been “trembling” but won’t see a doctor. She also says that Michael is going to begin law school at Berkeley next semester.

In the kitchen, Ondine puts lobster into a pot to boil. She asks Jadine if she ran away with Son. Jadine says the relationship is over, and it was a mistake. Ondine says that Margaret wants her and Sydney to stay, while Valerian mostly listens to music in the greenhouse. Jadine asks Ondine if she and Sydney want to stay, and Ondine says they don’t have much choice. She then tells Jadine that a girl has to learn to be a daughter before she can be a woman. Then she can learn how to be worthy of a child, a man, and the respect of other women. She says that a daughter is someone who looks out for the people who took care of her and that Jadine hasn’t been doing that. 

Jadine responds that there are other ways to be a woman and that she doesn’t want to be the kind of woman that Ondine is. Ondine says there’s only one kind of woman. Jadine leaves to finish packing, and Sydney comes into the kitchen. He says that Jadine hasn’t done right by him and Ondine. Ondine says that she’s young and will learn as she gets older. Ondine tells Sydney that Son was violent toward Jadine, and Sydney says he hopes Son comes to the island then so he can kill him.  

Sydney then brings lunch to Valerian in the greenhouse—he has started to feed Valerian because Valerian’s tremors have made daily tasks difficult. Sydney remarks that the greenhouse is falling into disrepair, and Valerian says that it’s his place, so he can do what he wants with it. Valerian asks Sydney if he knew about Margaret’s abuse of Michael. Sydney says he didn’t, and Valerian remarks that, since Christmas, Margaret and Ondine have been talking to each other in the kitchen like they used to when they were friends. Valerian says he wants to return to Philadelphia, but Sydney says he suspects they’ll all stay on the island for a long time.

The next day, Jadine goes to the airport in Dominique. She thought New York would protect her from the “night women”—the women who appeared to her in a dream when she was in Eloe—but that effort turned out to be futile. So she’s on her way to Paris for a new start. In the airport, a young woman approaches Jadine. At first, Jadine doesn’t recognize her but then sees that it’s a friend of Thérèse’s who used to work at L’Arbe de la Croix. Nonchalantly, she asks if Jadine killed Son. Thérèse said she did. Jadine says that Thérèse killed Son. Jadine calls the woman Mary, but she corrects her and says her name is Alma Estée. 

On the plane, there aren’t many other passengers aside from Jadine in first class. Jadine thinks that she’s ready to “tangle” with the “night women” who judge her for failing to live up to their expectations of womanhood. She looks down at the island below and thinks of the soldier ants marching there. Most of the soldier ants are women, and they work endlessly. There is little need for males. And when they are needed, the queen has sex once and then gives birth. Jadine wonders what happens to the male ant after that, and she thinks it must be as hard for the queen ant to forget that male ant as it will be for her to forget Son.