Names and the construction of identity: Evidence from Toni Morrison's Tar Baby

We argue that the processes of naming and being named contribute critically to the construction of self-identity. Toni Morrison's novel Tar Baby provides a rich source of data to assess this claim. We begin by examining names in the common ground of individuals and of communities. We then consider how names are the tools by which human categories are created. We provide an information processing analysis of the mechanisms of naming effects through a discussion of the functions served by concepts and the schematic basis of using names to construct social reality.