Mercy is not one story, but multiple, sometimes contradictory, interlocking stories. Characters tell stories to make sense of their lives, and these stories have tremendous power for both good and evil. Lina’s stories, in particular, stand out for their affirmative power. First and foremost, she tells Mercy’s story, and though she questions the accuracy and meaning of her version, to some degree her attention and care redeem the ugliness of Mercy’s life. (56)
According to David Machin, when the adults hope that the baby dies, they attempt to rewrite this story as a hopeful one. They are proud to say that circumstances have given them a chance to be the saviours. She resists the premise of white superiority, writing her own story about the beauty …show more content…
The psychological problems faced by individuals need to be grounded in the socio-communal context. The disintegration of psychology and surrender to deviant taste are major events ruinous to the health of individuals. Gibaldi points out the following views:
Lina believes that this mark of conventional, white beauty will change the way that she is seen and therefore the way that she sees the world. There are continual references to other characters’ eyes as well—for example, they reside in the blankness in their eyes, as well as in his inability to see a black girl. This motif underlines the novel’s repeated concern for the difference between how we see and how we are seen, and the difference between superficial sight and true insight. (71) The level of obsession faced by Lina and Florence is rooted in the phenomenon which has happened in the Afro-American community. Thus it can be said without a moment’s delay that the problem faced by Lina is not the individual problem but the problem that has arisen in the society of Black people. The growing hierarchy amidst the Black people of Afro-American community has exerted pressures on the psychology of an