In Tony Morrison’s A Mercy, there are several female characters, both slaves and whites, who are terribly abused or below the status of most men. The first character we are introduced to is that of Florens, a young slave girl who begins in the care of a wealthier banana owner with her mother and younger brother, and is then sold to Jacob, an Anglo-Dutch merchant to pay off a debt. .
From the beginning, the young woman is not seen as some self-esteem on the part of her first owner, as she is so enthusiastically dismissed with a simple: “Well yes, of course, I will send her to you immediately (26).” He is not bothered or moved by the fact that he is losing a seemingly healthy enough slave, because she is female and therefore not as valued as male slaves, who are automatically considered stronger, smarter and more able to complete tasks. This sets the tone very early in the story, showing the audience that this is the reality of the situation, and that women really had no say in their destiny.
She is also mistreated later in the story by the blacksmith with whom she not only had sex, but fell deeply in love with. When she is sent on her journey to retrieve the blacksmith so she can heal her lover, she leaves a small child in her care. When she returns, she discovers that the boy has been injured and immediately blames Florens, as she describes “The back of your hand hits my face … There are no tender fingers to touch where you hurt me. I shrink.” Although Florens has been a part of her life for a longer period of time, she immediately disowns her when she finds that the child is hurt, putting the man in front of the woman again and giving her a higher value.
The Native American woman, Lina, is also abused at the hands of a man. We come to find in history that Lina has a rather tragic past, but where feminism is most shown is once again in the case of a lover. When the Presbyterians took her in after their village was killed for my illness, she was beaten by a lover and forced to walk through the city, bruised and bleeding, a very humiliating experience. Once again, this shows how invaluable the women were, and the way Lina describes the injuries as nothing is even more terrifying when she says, “Lina’s swollen eye had calmed down, and the eyelash cuts in his face, arms and legs had healed and were barely there. ” perceptible. “The novel describes it as if these injuries were just a minor thing that she just had to put up with and wait to go away, when in reality this woman suffered a great deal of abuse. It is a subject that should never be taken lightly, but in This novel clearly points out that domestic violence against women was not considered a punishable offense and was not explored.
Rebekka is a special case, because unlike the other two women described above, she is not a slave, but a mistress, who was ordered to be the wife of Jacob Vaarks. Due to religious intolerance in England, Rebekka is forced by her family to go to America and be the wife of this man, whom she had never met before, and therefore cannot be in love. She has absolutely nothing to say about her future, and it is simply the response to an ad in the newspaper, which says enough about the value of women right there, as it was perfectly normal to run ads for women. Even when she is placed in the boat to take care of her, she immediately notices the different treatments of the genders when “as soon as they were separated from the males … and taken to a dark space below next to the stables of the animals”. Women were treated on the same level as animals, and it was never thought twice about.
After taking a brief look at the lives of the characters, it is now important to dig a little deeper into the feminist critique. An important concept in this view is that of “traditional gender roles” in which Lois Tyson describes as “presenting men as rational, strong, protective and decisive, and women as emotional / irrational, weak, loving and submissive “. This is demonstrated throughout the book, as described above, and these “traditional gender norms” are the main cause of such discrimination. It is what feminists have been fighting against for centuries and, unfortunately, these norms are so deeply ingrained in people’s minds that we see them not only in literary works, but also in everyday life.
Another important concept to understand is the “patriarchal system,” which Tyson claims “continually exerts forces that undermine women’s self-confidence and assertiveness, and then points to the absence of these qualities as proof that women are naturally, and therefore corrective, self-taught “. fuzzy and submissive. ‘ , they have the authority to literally “run” everything. Women consistently respond to men and therefore men make most of the decisions for us, which can lead to needs being overlooked This is again obviously demonstrated in the book, as all men are in positions of power and women are constantly submissive to them, be it housework, sexual interactions, etc.
The patriarchal system has a great influence on this novel. Although feminism, as stated above, is not about attacking men, it has a strong focus on how this particular country is dominated by men. In this story, the same thing happens. Men are the heads of the household without fail, and there are multiple examples of infidelity when it comes to men and their slaves. Women seem to be expected to turn a blind eye when female slaves become pregnant with mixed children, obviously created by their husbands, whereas if a woman were to do the same, the consequences would be tremendous.
When Jacob Vaark makes some money, he decides to build a separate house, even though they could use the money for many more things that they really needed. Although Rebekka is his wife, he does not consult her once to see what he thinks the money should be spent on. She has no say in the matter, because he is in charge and what he says counts, his opinion is not valued as it should be in a marriage. As mentioned above, their marriage was also arranged, proving once again that when a man wanted a woman for this or that, women were expected to do so without a second thought, because the men were running the show.
Although Morrison’s novel is a very severe case of the patriarchal system at its worst due to the time period in which it was developed, it still does a fairly accurate job of getting the point across. The attitudes and behaviors of the female characters are shaped by that system, because they are in positions of lower status than the male characters at all times. Your needs and wants take a back seat or are completely overlooked, because those with the most power are the ones who make all the decisions. The women depicted in the novel behave as if it is the norm that their opinions do not matter in any way, and by showing this kind of mental abuse in the story, it opens people’s eyes to the fact that something must be done to change. this. .
Overall, A Mercy is not just a slave story, but a cry for help. Although discrimination like this is not as prevalent in the world today (obviously since slavery was abolished), it is still very much alive in today’s culture. We still live in a patriarchal system, and women still have to fight ten times harder to earn the same respect and positions as men. A Mercy is a great job to take a feminist approach, and there’s a lot to learn if you take the time to read between the lines.