Charlie Scott

Mrs. Hunt

American Lit

1/29/17

A Mercy

"A Mercy" by Toni Morrison is a novel about a slave girl named Florens in the times of

American Slavery. The book follows her journey from being abandoned by her mother toward

the beginnings of her freedom. The novel not only centers around Florens, and also follows the

path of others who are owned by the same family. The novel shows the depth of slavery and the

different sides to it, not only the brutal side of it. Its characters, themes, setting, and symbols

give the reader a good understanding of life back then from different stories told throughout the

novel.

Many themes are used all through the book, however, one of the most prevalent themes is

literacy. Florens is literate and smart. This is why her mother abandons her in the beginning of

the novel. Literacy in that time for slaves was very scarce. It was hard to find a slave who was

educated. However there were some that were, and Florens is a good example of one of those

people. She was raised by her mother and learned to read from a Reverend Father who taught

her with sticks, rocks, and sand. We have sticks to draw through sand, pebbles to shape words

on a smooth flat rock. When the letters are a memory we make whole words. It was illegal at

the time to teach slaves how to read and write and they had to keep it a secret. Florens far

exceeded her younger brother in these classes and when Jacob Vaark came along to acquire a

slave from Mr. DOrtega so he could settle a debt, Minha Mae, Florenss mother, urged Mr.

Vaark to take Florens. This left Florens feeling abandoned and hurt. However, as the book

progresses she begins to realize what her mother had done and she begins to realize that

literacy leads to freedom.

 A prevalent symbol that develops throughout the entirety of the novel, is death. The lands are

covered with new diseases such as smallpox and measles. Jacob Vaark, Florenss owner, gets

smallpox in the beginning of the book and dies. His wife is plagued with it as well, however, she

sends Florens on a journey to get a blacksmith, who she think can cure her. He swears and

wants cider all the time and no one believes the blisters are going to be Sorrows old sickness.

He vomits all night and curses in the day. Then he is too weak to do either. The symptoms of

smallpox are brutal and Jacob later dies from it. Death was a common element in the 17th

century. Settlers new to America would acquire a new disease that was never heard of before,

and the natives would get the disease from the settlers that they had never experienced before.

These diseases mainly consisted of smallpox and measles, and those two come up in the novel.

Death occurs all around them.

"A Mercy" by Toni Morrison covers the issue of slavery in the United States. Unlike most

novels about this issue, it shows the side of slave owners that is not usually portrayed. The

Vaark family is a kind family who does not approve of slavery. They are not cruel to their slaves

unlike Mr. DOrtega, who beat them and raped them. This comes to show that slavery was not

supported by everyone back then, and some fought against it. Ridiculous, said DOrtega. You

sell them. Do you know the prices they garner. Jacob winced. Flesh was not his commodity.

This quote shows that Jacob did not approve of anything that Mr. DOrtega did with his slaves.

Florenss mother also let her go because of their owner. DOrtega beat them and cruelly labored

them. He also had his eye on young Florens and her mother did not want him touching her, so

she insisted that Florens go with Jacob, for she knew he was kinder and less cruel.

Many symbols, characters, settings, and themes come up during the novel "A Mercy". They

give the reader a perspective from the 17th century United States, and it informs the reader of

what it would be like to be a slave back then. The novel explains literacy and how it could lead

to freedom, it covers the issue of death and disease that swept the land and shows the cruelty

and kindness that different people had toward slavery in that time period. Toni Morrison does a
wonderful job explaining the level of literacy that Florens had and how it affected her throughout

the novel. As confusing as the book is, it portrays American Slavery in a way that is different and

unique to a reader.