From Zero to Nowhere: Tight Space and the Topophilia of Violence

Abstract

The previous chapter closed with the assertion that the unifying feature in the experiences of Macon Dead, Joe Trace, and Son Green was that each grew up having to contend with dead or absent mothers. I discussed Joe Trace’s effort to retaliate against what he comes to believe is his mother’s malicious act of abandonment. Scanning Tar Baby , we find only a scant reference to Son’s mother; for him home is the space occupied by “Old Man,” his father, who otherwise lives alone.

Niggers get their names the way they get everything else—the best way they can

—Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

“Well, it is a free country” “Not yet but it will be”

—Toni Morrison, “Recitatif”