Tar-Baby
The Tar-Baby is a doll made of tar and turpentine created by Br'er Fox to trap Br'er Rabbit in the most famous African American folktale. Br'er Fox fashions the doll and sets it in the road. When Br'er Rabbit greets the silent figure and receives no reply, he grows angry and strikes it, becoming stuck. Each successive limb he uses — first his paws, then his feet, and finally his head — becomes hopelessly ensnared in the sticky tar. The Tar-Baby has become a powerful metaphor in American English for a problem that grows worse the more one struggles against it. The tale's origins trace to Africa