A Mercy

Overview

A Mercy, by Toni Morrison, places us in Colonial America around 1690, 86 years before The Declaration of Independence. All of the institutions that will become the foundation of the United States are in the process of “becoming,” particularly the “peculiar institution” of slavery.

We view this time in America’s history from the vantage point of Jacob Vaark’s farm and learn about this time through the voices and narratives of all of the individuals who comprise the farm’s community: “Jacob, an Anglo-Dutch farmer, trader, and lender; his wife, Rebekka, newly arrived from England; their servant woman, the Native American Lina, whose tribe has been wiped out by smallpox; Florens, the slave girl he reluctantly accepts as payment for a bad loan; and the permanently shipwrecked Sorrow, daughter of a sea captain killed in a storm off the coast of the Carolinas.” (A Mercy Reader’s Guide)

In terms of plot, the novel begins in the middle of the action and goes backward and forward in time. At the beginning of the novel, we find out what has happened; and through our reading, we work to piece together how it happened and to participate in figuring out why it has happened the way it has, and the significance of what has happened on the characters and the country.

A Mercy—like all of Morrison’s novels—suggests what the problems and conflicts are, but doesn’t lead us to cut-and-dried solutions. The novel presents possibilities, spaces and places where we as readers are expected to “work” and to participate in the construction of meaning.

Background Knowledge and Historical Contexts

The optional readings below help provide some historical context which may be useful when reading the novel.

• Four hundred years after enslaved Africans were first brought to Virginia, most Americans still don’t know the full story of slavery (New York Times)
• Bacon’s Rebellion 1676 (American History Central)
• How Slavery Became the “Law of the Land” (American History Central)

Questions/Topics to Consider While Reading

Below are questions and topics to consider while reading. You do not have to consider or answer them all (it’s a lot!), but see which topics you gravitate towards when reading. Several of these questions have been copied or adapted from the A Mercy Reader’s Guide by the publisher.

• History and fiction: What does A Mercy reveal about Colonial America that is startling and new? In what ways does Morrison give this period in our history an emotional depth that cannot be found in textbooks? Why is it important to have a visceral, emotional grasp of what life was like, especially for Africans, Native Americans, and women, in Colonial America? In what ways has American culture tried to forget or whitewash this history?
• Point of view and perspective: A Mercy is told primarily through the distinctive narrative voices of Florens, Lina, Jacob, Rebekka, Sorrow, and, lastly, Florens’s mother. What do these characters reveal about themselves through the way they speak? Why are the sections by Florens (and Floren’s mother) written in first person (I) while the other characters are in third person (“she”)? What are the advantages of such a multivocal narrative over one told through a single voice?
• Setting, Eden, paradise: How does Toni Morrison portray the setting of the so-called new world? How does Jaco view this land and attempt to bring nature under his control? Why does he build bigger and bigger houses? How does the novel play with the idea of Adam and Eve in Eden? What does the novel say about the concept of paradise? Of home? How does the presence of Native American characters like Lena in the novel complicate these narratives?
• Freedom, dominion, enslavement: How does Jacob’s attitude toward his slaves/workers differ from that of the farmer who owns Florens’s mother? How does Jacob justify making money from trading sugar produced by slave labor in Barbados? What does the blacksmith mean when he tells Florens that she is “a slave by choice” [p. 167]? What is meant by seeing “slaves freer then free men” [p187]? How does the novel complicate ideas of dominion, ownership, or freedom? What is the importance of choice in the novel?
• Gender: Rebekka knows that even as a white woman, her prospects are limited to “servant, prostitute, wife, and although horrible stories were told about each of those careers, the last one seemed safest” [p. 91]. And Lina, Sorrow, and Florens know that if their mistress dies, “three unmastered women … out here, alone, belonging to no one, became wild game for anyone” [p. 68]. What does the novel as a whole reveal about the precarious position of women, European and African, free and enslaved, in late-seventeenth-century America?
• Mothers, daughters, possession, and sacrifice: What different portraits of mothers and daughters do we get in the novel? How does Florens view her relationship with her mother? What do we learn about her mother’s choice and sacrifice at the end of the book? What do you make of the story of the eagle? What does the novel
• Religion, faith: When Florens asks for shelter on her journey to find the blacksmith, she is taken in by a Christian widow and her apparently “possessed” daughter Jane, whose soul she is trying to save by whipping her. And Rebekka experiences religion, as practiced by her mother, as “a flame fueled by a wondrous hatred” [p. 86]. How are Christians depicted in the novel? What affect does religion have on Rebekka and the other characters?
• Love: What role does the love story between Florens and the blacksmith play in the novel? How does the concept of love entwine with that of possession (“mine”)? Love is never simple in Morrison’s work. What does this novel reveal about the concept of love?
• Stories, writing, and literacy: What is the importance of writing and storytelling in the novel? “One question is who is responsible? Another is can you read?” [p. 3] “If you never read this, no one will. These careful words, closed up and wide open, will talk to themselves.” [p. 188].  Why are literacy and written language referenced throughout?
• A Mercy: Why is the title a mercy and not mercy? What is the difference between a miracle and a mercy? Why is that distinction important?

Reminders

• It’s okay (encouraged, even) to look things up, refer to guides and reference information as you read.
• Consider listening along with the audiobook narrated by Toni Morrison (available through the library on the Libby app or for purchase on libro.fm).
• Annotate (mark up, underline) and dog ear pages.
• Remember: rereading is reading; reading is rereading.
• After you finish, revisit sections you underlined. Make notes to synthesize your thoughts and questions.
• Discuss with friends or a local group.
• Come to our discussion with your own questions and insights.

Additional Readings and Interviews

• Book reviews of A Mercy
• Interview with Toni Morrison on Charlie Rose about A Mercy
• Interview with Toni Morrison on NPR about A Mercy
• Interview with Toni Morrison on KCRW Bookworm about A Mercy (part 1, part 2)

Book Club Discussion

Literary Cleveland’s free virtual book club discussion of A Mercy takes place Sunday, March 29 at 7pm ET with special guest Dr. Imani Perry. Register to join for free.