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A Mercy

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Submitted By hustudent
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Chelsea Carson
March 9, 2009
English 003-8:10-9:00

A Mercy

In Toni Morrison’s novel, there are several different narrators that all serve a unique purpose in the story. Though the story is primarily focused on the main character, Florens, all the different narrators help to bring together the plot and give insight into slavery in America during the late 1600’s. All the narrators’ stories revolve around Florens and they all tie in together with each other. The story starts off with Florens point of view. Here she is addressing another character, whom we do not know of yet. However, some parts in the text suggest that she is perhaps talking to a man who used to be her lover. On page 5 she says, “I will see your mouth and trail my fingers down. You will rest your chin in my hair again while I breathe into your shoulder in and out, in and out.” This quote hints to the reader that the person she is addressing is most likely a guy that she is familiar with, but we do not yet know their relationship yet. The reader learns that she has been given a mission to go out and find the person she is addressing in the text. We also learn that Florens is a young Portugese girl who has been taken away from her mother to be enslaved by another character named Sir. This chapter plays an important part as it introduces the reader to almost all of the narrators in the story, Sir, Mistress, Lina, and Sorrow. The next narrator the reader gets introduced to is Jacob Vaark, or Sir which Florens has referred to him as. Jacob’s point of view tells the story of his travels through Maryland to handle business. It was while he was away on business that he acquired Florens. Though he did not approve of the slave trade, he agreed to take Florens, which he thought would be a good substitute for his wife’s dead child. Based on the text, Jacob comes off as a man who is

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