39 pages • 1 hour read
Toni MorrisonA Mercy
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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The Different Faces of Slavery
Slavery takes on different forms, be it through Rebekka who is sold to Jacob in marriage, Lina whose tribe and family are slaughtered due to colonialism and expansion, Scully and Willard who are indentured servants, or Minha mãe and Florens who are sold into slavery. Enslaved Black people, Indigenous people, those with a diverse racial background, and indentured white servants all existed under the umbrella of the slave system. There are important questions that arise as a result of the inherently transracial aspect to slavery. Did the differentiation between free and enslaved exist before the solidification of race designation? Or were these conditions based upon the perception of one’s skin color? When there have been so many races entangled and bound up with the institution of slavery, why and when did the word “slaves” become synonymous with Black people? These are only a small collection of some of the questions that Morrison’s A Mercy inspires.
Morrison further subverts the many themes commonly seen in slave narratives. For example, instead of a group of runaway Black slaves, Lina and Florens instead come across a group of indentured servants who are trying to escape their contracts and flee to the North. The scene of escaping slaves is one most readers will be familiar with as it is a common trope used in slave narratives and fictions. Likewise, there are incidents that are reminiscent of the institution of slavery and its cruel practices that take place outside the context of enslavement.
The naked examination of Florens by the townspeople, for example, is one such out-of-context scene. The objectification of enslaved peoples is a common signifier of slavery. Scenes of people being examined to be sold can be seen in A Mercy as well. However, in this instance, the dehumanization of Florens occurs outside the context of slavery. Morrison writes:
Without touching they tell me what to do. To show them my teeth, my tongue. They frown at the candle burn on my palm, the one you kissed to cool. They look under my arms, between my legs. They circle me, lean down to inspect my feet (113).
In this instance, Florens becomes an object to be examined, an unknown thing to be feared. By objectifying Florens and turning her into nothing more than a body, the townspeople themselves perpetuate the dehumanization at the core of the institution of slavery. By treating people as objects to be pushed around, they unwittingly contribute to the lexicon of enslavement, where some human beings are openly understood to be less important than others.
Sisterhood
Though A Mercy does have quite a few protagonists, it is of note that most of them are women. The novel focuses quite a bit on the bond between women, and the ways that sisterhood manifests in a society that is largely patriarchal and misogynistic. The trope of sisterhood is most evident in three separate instances. Minha mãe shares a special relationship with Florens that she does not with her son; their shared gender is the impetus for Minha mãe to give Florens up to a seemingly kindly Jacob Vaark in the first place. Minha mãe recognizes the predatory glances of D’Ortega have begun to shift to a growing Florens and she is desperate to spare her daughter the trauma of rape and sexual assault. Though Florens and her mother are related, the role of gender is essential in her decision to grant Florens “a mercy.”
The connection between Rebekka and the other women on the ship is yet another clear example of survival predicated on sisterhood. The women who forced to make the terrible journey together to the Americas share food, stories, and comfort in order to survive the physical and mental toll of the trip. The bond is one forged through trials and tribulations, and not one that lasts outside of the parameters of necessity. Once Rebekka arrives on shore, for example, none of the women ever try to speak to one another again. It is telling that the women only return to Rebekka in the form of a hallucination when she is ill and on death’s door.
The trope of sisterhood once again presents itself in the short friendship that forms between Daughter Jane and Florens. The final passage of that chapter speaks to the necessity of exchange within the sisterhood relationship. Florens and Daughter Jane both get something in return while also giving the other something at great risk to themselves:
Daughter Jane hands me the cloth of eggs. She explains how I am to go, where the trail will be that takes me to the post road that takes me to the hamlet where I hope you are. I say thank you and lift her hand to kiss it. She says no, I thank you. They look at you and forget about me (114).
In this first part of the passage, Daughter Jane acknowledges that Florens’s presence has diverted the unwanted attention of the townspeople from herself. In return, she gives Florens food, and also helps her escape from those who believe that she is a demon. This risk and reward appears to be part and parcel of the relationship established between them. They are both desperate to survive the societal traps that exist around them and are also willing to help each other to do so. A bond of sisterhood in a male-dominated society is a dangerous thing. It is subversive and inherently poses a threat to those in power around them. Florens says, “Are you a demon I ask her. Her wayward eye is steady. She smiles. Yes, she says. Oh, yes. Go now” (114). Daughter Jane’s response lends itself to this idea of a subversive sisterhood forged through the need to survive.
House and Home
The symbols of house and home appear in different perspectives of A Mercy. They mean different things to different characters, of course, but the most notable difference is that of Florens and Minha mãe’s definition of home and Jacob Vaark’s newly built house. The difference between a house and a home is in the very name itself. A house is merely a physical dwelling place, devoid of emotion and warmth and connection. A home, on the other hand, can be found in many things and many people. These symbols of house and home imply the warmth of a hearth, a family, and a lasting legacy.
Jacob Vaark’s house is entirely devoid of warmth; built from wealth garnered from slave labor, the new house is more of a monument to Jacob’s greed than it is a lasting legacy of his life. The symbolic emptiness of this house is echoed by the Vaarks’ inability to have a child. Rebekka loses three babies in total and also suffers the death of a young toddler. These losses are tragic, and they speak to the lack of legacy that Jacob Vaark will leave behind. With no children and no moral compass, Jacob has nothing left to commemorate his mark on the world other than material objects and a beautiful, but empty house. No one can enjoy this house and it is certainly not a home. Morrison writes, “Jacob Vaark climbed out of his grave to visit his beautiful house” (143). It is ironic, of course, that the house Jacob imagined would one day be his home is nothing more than a visiting place, a temporary respite from his grave.
The symbol of a home, on the other hand, is entirely different. Unlike Jacob Vaark’s house, Florens’s home is not a physical house. Instead, Florens finds comfort and a home in the bond between her mother and herself. Morrison writes, “Not the outside dark we share, a minha mãe and me, but the inside one we don’t […] The sun’s going leaves darkness behind and the dark is me. Is we. Is my home” (115). In this passage, Florens directly speaks to how home is entirely separate from physicality. To Florens, home is entirely internal, not tied to her skin color, “the outside dark” that both her and her mother share (115). Instead, Florens finds comfort, family, and home in the internal darkness that they share. This internal darkness symbolizes their shared experience with slavery, abandonment, and trauma. This darkness is also the well of rage and wildness that Florens feels. As a result, Florens becomes a part of the natural landscape around her, where she feels at home with the darkness, a continuation of her mother’s own experience.
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