Narrative Conflicts and Reliability:
Morrison gives that power to every prominent character in her book. By presenting so many characters with their own chapters giving perspectives on the same story, Morrison creates conflict not only between the characters, but the reader as well. Multiple points of view create confusion in the reader deciding which character to trust. The book chapter, “Narrative Conflicts and Violence of Reading in Toni Morrison's A Mercy” by Anna Iatsenko speaks further on such conflict. Iatsenko emphasizes trustworthiness in her article, and the trust that is usually formed between the reader and the narrator one the basis that their perspective of the story that is being told is genuine, but very unique complications arise once numerous narrators are introduced, and she speaks of the concept of “narratorial reliability” in which Morrison demonstrates: “...Morrison also further experiments with narrative technique and strategies which problematize the traditional notions of narratorial reliability and reading practice where the readers' responsibility for making meaning heavily relies on the narrator's trustworthiness” (“Narrative Conflicts”).
Lina and Sorrow:
Examples in the text that, in a way, deceive the reader and breaks the trust that has been formed between narrator and reader are the relationships between Sorrow and Lina and also that between Florens and her mother. Lina, since the day she met the wild-haired, pregnant, eleven-year-old, did not trust Sorrow. Told through both Lina and Florens’ chapters, the origin of Lina’s disdain for Sorrow began the day Jacob Vaark brought her to the farm, but with no knowledge of where her hatred stemmed from. Lina wanted to spread her contemptuous attitude towards the girl to others—telling Rebekka that Sorrow was the bad omen that killed her children, keeping Florens from her when she arrived and spreading the rumor that Sorrow’s unborn child was Jacob’s—in her desire to ostracize her, “In the best of times the girl dragged misery like a tail...In Sorrow’s presence eggs would not allow themselves to be beaten into foam, nor did butter lighten cake batter. Lina was sure the early deaths of Mistress’ sons could be placed at the feet of the natural curse that was Sorrow” (Morrison 55).
Intentional Placement of Narratives:
Of course, placement and the order in which everyone’s story is told from their perspectives also very important. Morrison chose for Sorrow’s story to be told second to last in the novel (Florens’ mother last), allowing the judgements of others and her action’s through other’s eyes to shape the reader’s opinions. But it was through Sorrow’s perspective that we know her extremely sad beginnings and how that would affect her behavior, that Lina’s judgements were completely unfounded, and one can even say that it was due to jealousy of Sorrow’s freedom. Upon finishing the book, we realize that Morrison had made a pattern for her narrative placement and can only assume that it was absolutely intentional for her to have Sorrow’s story—the most peculiar character—towards the end of the novel.
Florens and her Mother:
A more prominent instance in which a character is judged through the eyes of another before they can tell their side is that of Florens and her mother. The novel begins with Florens telling the reader of how she met Jacob Vaark and came to be in his care—the event in which Florens’ mother practically throws her daughter to Jacob is told in a very specific way that the reader automatically dislikes Florens’ mother and questions both her morality and motherhood. Even Jacob, who was against the idea of bartering bodies for unpaid debts was shocked at her actions, “Jacob looked up at her...and was struck by the terror in her eyes. His laugh creaking to a close, he shook his head, thinking, God help me if this is not the most wretched business” (Morrison 26). We learn at the very end of the novel, opposite to the order in which Florens tells her side, that her mother traded Florens to Jacob in hopes that she would not suffer the same fate remaining on the D’Ortega plantation. Besides the unsettling living conditions and violence the the slaves faced, Florens’ mother was also a victim of sexual assault at the hands of D’Ortega and she soon noticed the plantation owner sizing up Florens for she was growing up. Just as it was with Sorrow’s story, what was once an immediate attack on their character based on the perspective of another, just as quickly evoked sympathy once the thoughts and motives of the character in question were clarified.
Iatsenko, Anna. “Narrative Conflicts and Violence of Reading in Toni Morrison’s A
Mercy.” Cultures in Conflict/Conflicting Cultures, edited by Christina Ljungberg and Mario Klarer, Gunter Narr Verlag; Stauffenburg Verlag Brigitte Narr GmbH; Narr Franke Attempto; Swiss Association of University Teachers of English, 2013, pp. 79–91. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2019303596&site=eds-live.