Kristen Harcum is an English major with a concentration in Secondary Education at Bowie State University. Upon graduating from Bowie State University, Kristen plans to teach in the Prince George’s County Public School System and also start a nonprofit after-school Performing Arts Center in Prince George’s County.
Introduction:
Toni Morrison’s A Mercy is a historical novel that is told through multiple perspectives and handles time in a nonlinear way. Morrison deciding to not tell A Mercy in chronological order switches around the five elements of plot: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. For example, the resolution of A Mercy chronologically serves as the exposition, but in Morrison’s timeline, it is the resolution.
Plot refers to “the main events of a play, novel, movie, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence.” (Oxford). In A Mercy, Morrison presents the plot in a nonlinear sequence, however, such a timeline can be confusing to readers at first. This portion of the libguide will be one, identifying the main events of Chapters, One, Two, and Three, and two, placing the events of the chapters in a timeline, one that is chronological order and one that is presented to the reader in A Mercy.
Chapter 1:
Chapter One begins with an unknown narrator, which turns out to be Florens; the narrator introduces the characters, Lina, William, Sculley, Reverend Father, Sorrow, and Sir and Mistress, who are revealed to be Jacob and Rebekka. Florens arrived at Jacob’s farm when she was around seven or eight years of age based on Lina’s observation of her teeth. Also in Chapter One, Lina reveals Sorrow’s pregnancy and her (incorrect) belief that the father of Sorrow’s unborn child is Jacob.
Chapter 2:
In Chapter Two, Jacob Vaark arrives in Maryland. Jacob inherits farmland from his uncle after his death. Later on, in Chapter Two, Jacob is invited for dinner by D’Ortega and his family, while at dinner he is offered slaves as payment for a debt but he refuses he already had taken in Sorrow ten years prior and Lina. Before he leaves, he is begged by an enslaved mother to take her daughter, who is a young Florens at the time and he agrees to.
Chapter 3:
In Chapter Three, Jacob becomes sick with small pox and eventually dies. Rebekka too becomes inflicted with small pox. Florens travels with the Ney brothers on their wagon to find the Blacksmith, whom Florens has romantic feelings for, and bring him back to the farm so that he can heal Rebekka of smallpox.
References:
Morrison, Toni. A Mercy. New York: Vintage Books, 2008.