Slavery In Toni Morrison's A Mercy

In her novel A Mercy, Morrison uses the slave narrative to make the readers close to her work. By using this narrative style, the reader feels sympathy with the slaves and he can put him/herself in their shoes. Morrison thinks by shedding light upon that topic, the world take any action to save these feeble servants. It is a witty style which makes the novel more effective. Morrison speaks about the slave narrative and says “a very large part of my own literary heritage is the autobiography” (qtd Mueller 2). Toni Morrison received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993. In her first discourse after receiving the prize, Morrison spoke about duties of the responsible writers toward their societies. She used to write about that topic in her works.

They have to do with the spirit of this age. They reflect how people act and behave in this particular period. They show the general atmosphere that can be found in the African American literature. Among these themes, there is a main theme which is slavery. Slavery is one of the main themes in Toni Morison’s A Mercy. Most of the characters are drawn as slaves. In the African American period, there were –as explained in the novel- two kinds of servitude. The first kind is a indentured servitude. The indentured servitude means, the slave is going to work for a specific period. This category happens when the servants want to gain a specific favor. The indentured servants on the Vaark farm are Willard and Scully. Second kind is an eternal servitude. The slave is going to be a slave till his death. He has no choice but remaining a slave. This servitude is the best example to present how slaves have uncivilized conditions. This kind of slavery is shown in many characters such as Minha mãe, Florens, and Sorrow. They have no option but being slaves. There will be no time in which they will be

She reflects how mothers in this time did their best to save their daughters from the savage society. The ladies had no rights in this society. They were abused, raped and punished with no mercy. They were under estimated and degenerated in this unfair society “To be a female in this place is to be an open wound that cannot heal. Even scars form, the festering is ever below” Chap. 12, p. 178. Minha mãe is Florens' mother. Minha mãe tries her best to prevent her daughter from wearing shoes “my mother, a Minha mãe, is frowning, is angry at what she says are my prettify ways. Only bad women wear high heels” Chap. 1, p. 4. The true reason is that she wants Florens to be away from being noted. Minha mãe had a bad experience with this society and she doesn’t want her daughter to get the same inhuman experience. Florens dislikes to be barefoot “when a child I am never able to abide being barefoot and always beg for shoes, anybody’s shoes, even in the hottest days” Chap. 1, p. 4. Minha mãe wants to send her daughter away whatever the cost is. When there was a chance to do so, she doesn’t reluctant. When both Jacob Vaark and D'Ortegas agree to settle the debt by selling Minha mãe and her daughter to Jacob Vaark but the boy isn’t going to be sold, Minha mãe begs Vaark to leave her to feed her baby who still needs her and to take her daughter. The landowner accepts her request and takes her daughter “sir saying he