Sayeeda Jordan is pursuing a BA in English, with a concentration in Language and Literature at Bowie State University. She is an avid reader and enjoys analyzing literature from different perspectives. Sayeeda spends her time as a volunteer tutor in Baltimore, MD for Reading Partners, a program that fights the literacy challenge in youth at low-income schools.
Shoes
o “When a child I am never able to abide being barefoot and always beg for shoes, anybody’s shoes, even on the hottest days” (Morrison 4).
o Throughout the novel, shoes – and lack thereof, correlate with the journey and growth of Florens, the main character. The fact that Florens even feels the need to wear shoes, along with the soft shoes that are made for her when she first comes to the farm, are a reflection of how she needs to be coddled. Florens is a very clingy person in the same manner as a duckling to its mother. By the end of her journey, though, a freshly heartbroken Florens travels barefooted and develops feet that are as “hard as cypress” (Morrison 161), which is a reflection of her growth into independence and toughness.
Dogs/Dog Heads
o “I am remembering the dog’s profile rising from Widow Ealing’s kettle. Then I cannot read its full meaning. Now I know how. I am guarding. Otherwise I am missing all understanding of how to protect myself” (Morrison 139).
o In A Mercy, Florens sees the profile of a dog or a dog’s head right before something bad happens. By the end of her journey she realizes that she sees them as warnings of danger.
The Stag
o “I hear something behind me and turn to see a stag moving up the rock side. He is great. And grand...I wonder what else the world may show me...It is as though I am loose to do what I choose...when I choose...the stag bounds away” (Morrison 69-70).
o To Florens, the stag represents freedom. Having never been free, she assumes the stag’s ability to roam wherever it pleases is what freedom feels like. She describes it as a looseness, an ability to choose for herself.
Jacob’s Large House
o “Jacob Vaark climbed three brick steps, then retracted them to stand back from the house and appraise it...he had never seen a house like it. The wealthiest men he knew built in wood, not brick...Grandiose, he thought” (Morrison 15).
o “He decided to kill the trees and replace them with a profane monument to himself, he was cheerful” (Morrison 44).
o Jacob’s house represents greed because he only decides he wants it after seeing D’Ortega’s mansion. The larger house is not needed nor is it desired by anyone else that lives on Jacob’s farm, yet he makes sure that it is built purely for his own pleasure.