Song of Solomon
Hagar shares a relationship with Milkman, but he turns her away after he no longer sees her as useful or as desirable to him. The way Milkman breaks up with Hagar through a note shows his lack of consideration, as he refuses to confront her in person and instead communicates through a flimsy piece of paper. In a way, Milkman represents his view of their relationship in the note, detached and filled with meaningless words. From such a perspective, Hagar’s murderous reaction to the breakup makes sense. Milkman would not even give Hagar a chance to try and save their relationship, much less hear her feelings about it. Thus, Hagar’s feelings are trapped in this rage that leads her to try and kill Milkman. Milkman's disregard of Hagar and her feelings causes her to further involve herself with the path of his life in an attempt to stop Milkman from leaving her. Milkman is able to have agency as a man by using the note as a final goodbye, but Hagar is able to claim her own kind of agency in trying to kill Milkman. Even though it is through desperation, Hagar reacted to such an extreme in order to exert her own importance in Milkman’s life, as he showed he did not consider her valuable enough to settle down with her. Even though her task involves murder, Hagar made herself a remembrance within Milkman’s life as he tried to leave her behind. 
Milkman’s unintended influence of Hagar prompts her change of attitude in several ways. Before Milkman’s rejection of Hagar, she is very comfortable with herself and their relationship. Hagar settles into the possibility of a continuing and easy association with Milkman, but Milkman himself is still growing and not ready to settle. Hagar goes on a shopping spree of physical beautification so that she can regain a sense that she is worthy of Milkman’s affection. Her inability to kill Milkman makes her search for alternatives to once again be relevant to Milkman, falling back onto notions of beauty standards presented by society. Hagar realizes that Milkman is no longer emotionally attached to her, so she turns to physical acts, both for and against Milkman. Hagar’s growth at this point is more of a breakdown that shows how she is influenced by society’s standards of beauty. She knows that they exist, but she has never employed them for herself. Hagar attempts to change not only Milkman, but tries to regain a sense of emotional presence and security. It is only after she realizes that the physical aspects cannot help her that she truly breaks down. Hagar’s desperation shows her strength in even trying to change so drastically to appeal to Milkman after being willing to murder him due to his betrayal. Milkman refuses to recognize Hagar’s importance, so she creates her own in making herself an integral part of Milkman’s narrative.
Hagar’s failure to properly demonstrate herself as an individual with her own agency shows how Hagar was failed by society. Standards of beauty are familiar to all women, and Hagar had the option of ignoring them, so long as she had Milkman to rely on as security for her confidence. Once Milkman decides she does not live up to his standards, Hagar falls back on a physical sense of beauty that she could not achieve to explain his detachment. Pilate and Ruth both support her breakdown of herself into a commodity, as they provide the money for her to spend on her shopping spree. Her hair is the main obstacle to this sense of beauty, as her kinky hair cannot be kept in a straight style easily. From many different people Hagar has trusted in her life, there has been a demonstration that she is not enough for them and never will be. It is the moment Hagar loses her strength, she won't ever be able to live up to their expectations and have what she desires: to be considered, at least to someone, as important enough to be loved for who she is. Hagar seems to be a character meant merely to influence the main character, Milkman, to reconsider his treatment of women. Morrison gives Hagar a very tragic storyline that ends in death, never being fully fulfilled from a lack of Milkman’s attention. Milkman accepts Hagar as a sexual partner, thus she is included in his storyline, but once she is left by Milkman, her own story fails to grow beyond a breakdown from a lack of approval. Due to Hagar’s character being so weak in confidence in her beauty or inner strength, Hagar is unable to survive in the world without the approval of male attention. Even though Hagar is employed primarily for the sake of Milkman’s development, she shows the small ways she exerts herself to continue her story, but being unable to fulfill the beauty standards of society, cannot cope with the loss of a marriage or life partner. Hagar's character relies too much on the validation of another man, and essentially digs her own mental grave through this reliance.
Tar Baby
Even though Jadine is also influenced by a man, she has her own set of independence that Hagar does not. Her confidence, stemming from her education and modeling job abroad, bolstered her to the point that she also took charge of her life. When Son attempted to make Jadine adapt to his hometown lifestyle, she discovered that she is not willing to do everything in order to stay with Son. She determined that her love for him was not enough to change integral parts of herself. Jadine seems to take the path that Son desired, to leave behind the community that she did not feel she belonged in. Morrison uses this theme of leaving others behind as a sense of independence within men and women, with Hagar and Jadine taking drastic actions in order to improve how others consider them. Jadine demonstrates to Son that she doesn't need the judgement of him or his community, and takes her leave of them. Jadine knows she is beautiful, and her education gives her a sense of courage, yet she is lost when it comes to having an identity and sense of belonging. Jadine’s modeling jobs confirm her beauty and the classes she's taken confirm a sense of superiority over others, but this same elevation isolates her from connecting with a community. The duality of Jadine's mixed skin color and the opportunities she’s had as compared to others makes Jadine cut herself off from that community mentally. Her reliance on her own physical beauty and artistic skills means Jadine has a very high level of independence because she is secure in her abilities. Even though Jadine has been able to claim her own agency, she was not able to experience a sense of true belonging. Jadine loves to be on the move, always striving to more exciting or looking for new adventures, so being tied down in any way would ultimately hinder her as a person, as she realizes with Son. She enjoys the fast pace of the city, as she was familiar with the flow of the fast pace life. Jadine’s strong confidence within herself allows her many opportunities to travel to different cities and do modeling, even if she seems to cut herself off from other people, she got to have many enriching experiences.
Jadine’s assurance in herself helps her realize that she cannot settle down with Son, as the town reveals his expectations of Jadine. Eloe is a small town that Son convinces Jadine to visit with him as he is willing to be with her in the city. Son had an expectation of fair trade: that Jadine would be willing to have a look at what kind of lifestyle he grew up in. What Eloe reveals to Jadine is very different from what Son seeks from his visit, a rekindling of old friendships and recognition of the woman he is able to obtain. Jadine is more of a commodity to Son than the independent woman she is used to being seen as. This is a place that excludes Jadine, not because of her skin color, but because of her being female; something she has always been confident in. Her skin is the thing that makes her unsure of herself most of the time, but her intelligence and beauty have always been an advantage to her, whereas in Eloe they hinder her. The townspeople view her as a thing of useless beauty, an accessory for Son but not one good to settle down with. They cannot glean any useful household skills from their assessment of her outer appearance. Jadine is much more than a housewife, though, and finally realizes that she is not meant to settle into the wife or object that Son desires.
Jadine gathers her strength and leaves Son behind in Eloe, refusing to conform herself to a small town lifestyle and viewpoint. She is more comfortable in an environment of fast pace, high population, and no need to slow down. Jadine holds too much sense of talent and education to identify with the small town women of Eloe that tend after husbands, households, and children. This might seem pretentious, but Jadine should be appreciated for her skills and talents, not forced to throw them away to care solely for another. Jadine’s viewpoint shouldn’t be condescended, as she had the right to pursue her dreams, even if that means leaving Son behind. Leaving Son takes strength, even though it seems like she is emotionally detached, she is able to assert the narrative that her and Son are not meant to end up together.
Even though Jadine has the will to leave Son to pursue her own ambitions, she has an attachment to him that has to do with her lack of established identity. Jadine is adopted in the sense that her parents are gone from the world and she is cared for by both a white benefactor, Valerian Street, and the black servants that work for him, Sydney and Ondine. She has a complex that grows from this lack of blood connection to the people that raise her, which causes Jadine to strike out on her own to connect with herself. This creates a shield for Jadine against a sense of emotional vulnerability. Son is able to break down Jadine’s protective walls and show her a relationship based on attraction, not just financial benefits. Son is able to tolerate the city only because of Jadine, in the world created in the small apartment they stay in. This is only for a moment in both their lives, as their relationship goes through strains of different personalities and expectations. Son is threatened by Jadine’s independence, and she is able to see why when they visit Eloe. Jadine knows Son wants her to change her life’s direction to devote herself to him, but escapes Son’s influence by cutting him off altogether. For Jadine, opening herself up to Son would mean losing out on liberties she was already comfortable living with.
Jadine and Hagar show Morrison’s projection of two different, but similar, women of color living in a society not built for them to succeed in. Each woman struggles to find a real connection to tether herself to earth, or a story that will matter in their lives. They do not find success with other women, but try to connect with men they believe can protect, nurture, and support them through life. Even though Jadine and Hagar choose to rely on men, they both lose out in the end. With one voluntary removing herself from her lover, and the other being left behind with little regard. Each women goes through the struggle of how others view them, Hagar with her lack of physical achievements, and Jadine unable to fit in properly with mixed race and a refusal to settle down like everyone else. Black women are very unique in their situation, as they deal with oppression from all sides of race and gender.
“Black women are different from white women because they view themselves differently, are viewed differently and lead a different kind of life.” - Toni Morrison
They have to carve out their own ideas about themselves, as Jadine is able to succeed in doing, and as Hagar fails to realize she has the strength to do. Without a tether to their past, and an unwillingness to establish a connective support system, Hagar fails to live through a heartbreak, and Jadine must rely on money to escape from Son. Without that historical connection, Hagar and Jadine both continue to feel lost in their worlds, and in different ways carve out their existence in terms of how they impacted the men they tried to rely on. They find the strength of enduring a world where they are expected to conform themselves to fit everyone else's ideas. It truly shows the difficulty they have and how Jadine and Hagar find ways to be their own women of color.
To conclude, both of these women endure events that shape and mold their identity, as their reactions reveal their past, and direct their future actions. In order to grow or evolve as characters, Jadine and Hagar experience love and heartbreak. The actions of the men in their lives lead them to set off on their own or give up when they are left behind. With each man, there is an expectation that they will change in order to mold themselves for his pleasure. Hagar is unable to fulfill this change, and instead embraces death. Jadine cannot stand to change herself, and so she runs away from the constrictive lifestyle Son expects her to live in. Hagar has moments of strength when she disregards the normal way of society by trying to kill Milkman for his insolence, but is held back because of her feelings for him. Morrison displays these two characters in a way that shows how society can break women of color from their harsh judgements and high expectations.
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