A Mercy (2008) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

• Rebekka: Immigrant from England who comes to America to marry Jacob Vaark, whom she has never met. As the mistress of the three central slaves, Lina, Florens and Sorrow, Rebekka is a central figure in the novel.
• Lina: A Native American laborer on Jacob Vaark's farm.
• Florens: A slave on Jacob Vaark's farm; narrator of the story.
• Sorrow: A mysterious slave child on the Vaark farm.
• Jacob Vaark: Reluctant slave owner and farmer in rural New York; married to Rebekka, an immigrant from England.
• Scully: A white indentured servant on teh Vaark farm.
• Willard: A white indentured servant on teh Vaark farm.
• the blacksmith: A free black man who Florens makes a trek to find.
• Daughter Jane: Add a description of this character.
• Dorothea
• Regina
• Downes
• Senhor
• Lydia
• Judith
• Twin

Quotes edit see section history

• “In the dust where my heart will remain each night and every day until you understand what I know and long to tell you: to be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing.”

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• It was not a miracle. Bestowed by God. It was a mercy. Offered by a human. I stayed on my knees. In the dust where my heart will remain each night and every day until you understand what I know and long to tell you: to be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing.

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• You say you see slaves freer than free men. One is a lion in the skin of an ass. The other is an ass in the skin of a lion. That it is the withering inside that enslaves and opens the door for what is wild.

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• manumission, gatherings, travel and bearing arms for black people only; by granting license to any white to kill any black for any reason; by compensating owners for a slave’s maiming or death, they separated and protected all whites from all others forever.

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• Although they had nothing in common with the views of each other, they had everything in common with one thing: the promise and threat of men. Here, they agreed, was where security and risk lay.

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• We never shape the world she says. The world shapes us. Sudden and silent the sparrows are gone. I am not understanding Lina. You are my shaper and my world as well. It is done. No need to choose.

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• To be female in this place is to be an open wound that cannot heal. Even if scars form, the festering is ever below.

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• He believed it now with this ill-shod child that the mother was throwing away, just as he believed it a decade earlier with the curly-haired goose girl, the one they called Sorrow. And the acquisition of both could be seen as rescue. Only Lina had been purchased outright and deliberately, but she was a woman, not a child.

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• Mother hunger—to be one or have one—both of them were reeling from that longing which, Lina knew, remained alive, traveling the bone.

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• But then Job was a man. Invisibility was intolerable to men. What complaint would a female Job dare to put forth? And if, having done so, and He deigned to remind her of how weak and ignorant she was, where was the news in that? What shocked Job into humility and renewed fidelity was the message a female Job would have known and heard every minute of her life. No. Better false comfort than none, thought Rebekka, and listened carefully to her shipmates.

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• Twin was gone, traceless and unmissed by the only person who knew her. Sorrow’s wandering stopped too. Now she attended routine duties, organizing them around her infant’s needs, impervious to the complaints of others. She had looked into her daughter’s eyes; saw in them the gray glisten of a winter sea while a ship sailed by-the-lee. “I am your mother,” she said. “My name is Complete.”

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Barbados
• Portugal
• Europe
• Virginia

First Sentence edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Racism and Slavery: Describe this theme.
• Christianity

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Toni Morrison (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• ALA Notable Book (2010: Fiction)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States › African American › Morrison, Toni
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( M ) › Morrison, Toni
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Short Stories › United States
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary