Amelia Brizicky: Each character has been cast away from their family: Sir an orphan after his mother dies in childbirth and his father left him “with a name easily punned and a cause of deep suspicion” (33); Lina also an orphan after her whole village perishes from disease; Sorrow, found helpless on a riverbank, and finally Florens who is taken from her mother and sold to Sir to pay a debt. Yet, they come together, organizing themselves as a strange family, as bizarre and unpredictable as the landscape they settle. What is the role of family in this novel? Usually family is a stable structure, but in A Mercy it seems to be unstable and even dangerous. Especially examining Lina’s worry if Mistress dies on page 58-59. Are they a family, or are they just a group of orphans? Within this family structure of ownership, are the characters, such as Lina, allowed more agency then elsewhere? Also, it is interesting that after Lina’s village perishes, the Presbyterians force her to loose any cultural and familial identity attached to her village. Yet, when she lives with Sir, on page 48, she seems to be able to reclaim some of her lost cultural identity. How does this odd family function in a novel about slavery? How does the family operate when considering question of identity?
In the beginning of the book the main character discusses the topic of omens. Different images and events come into her life that she tries to interpret. “I sort them and try to recall, yet I know I am missing much, like not reading the garden snake crawling up to the door saddle to die.” Do you think that these images are actually predicting something or she is just reading too much into it? Do you think that this particular image of the snake represents anything that has already happened in the story or will it foreshadow a future event?
In Morrison’s A Mercy, there are many instances in which women undergo a process of evaluation before they enter the household of Jacob Vaark. Looking at pages 20-21 and 52-53, how would you describe the respective processes by which Rebekka and Lina are evaluated? Do the women’s respective positions in the household cause them to be judged by different criteria? What does this process of evaluation suggest about women’s role in the novel?
The Toni Morrison's, A Mercy, Florens begins her narrative with: "The beginning begins with shoes. When a child I am never able to abide being barefoot and always beg for shoes, anybody's shoes even on the hottest days. My mother, a minha mae, is frowning, is angry at what she says are my prettify ways. Only bad women wear high heels. I am dangerous, she says, and wild but she relents... As a result, Lina says, my feet are useless, will always be too ternder for life and never have the strong soles, tougher than leather, that lfe requires. Lina is correct... Who else these days has the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady?" (4) What do you believe is the significance of beginning the story in this manner? What do you believe the metaphor of the shoes and pehaps the description of "tender soles" says about Florens? Finally, do you think this could be a forshadowing for the events Florens will encounter throughout the novel, and how?
Today, I went to the beach front with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said "You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear." She placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is totally off topic but I had to tell someone!
Th Jan. 15 Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (Norton)
Tu Jan. 20 Abraham Lincoln, “A House Divided” and “Second Inaugural Address” (Norton) Assignment: watch Obama’s inaugural address (today at noon, or watch it online later) and compare to Lincoln’s inaugural addresses
Th Jan. 22 William Apess, An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man (Norton) Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Hope Leslie, Vol. I, Chapter 4 (Norton)
Tu Jan. 27 Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (Norton)
Th Jan. 29 Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Birth-Mark” (Norton)
Tu Feb. 3 Hawthorne, “Rappaccini’s Daughter” Edgar Allan Poe, “Ligeia” (Norton)
Th Feb. 5 Poe, “The Raven,” “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “William Wilson” (Norton)
Tu Feb. 10 Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Norton)
Th Feb 12 Douglass, Narrative First paper due Friday, Feb. 13, 4 p.m.
Tu Feb 17 Herman Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener” and “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” (Norton)
Th Feb 19 Rebecca Harding Davis, “Life in the Iron-Mills” (Norton)
Tu Feb 24 Walt Whitman, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” and “Song of Myself” parts 1-7 (Norton)
Amelia Brizicky:
ReplyDeleteEach character has been cast away from their family: Sir an orphan after his mother dies in childbirth and his father left him “with a name easily punned and a cause of deep suspicion” (33); Lina also an orphan after her whole village perishes from disease; Sorrow, found helpless on a riverbank, and finally Florens who is taken from her mother and sold to Sir to pay a debt. Yet, they come together, organizing themselves as a strange family, as bizarre and unpredictable as the landscape they settle. What is the role of family in this novel? Usually family is a stable structure, but in A Mercy it seems to be unstable and even dangerous. Especially examining Lina’s worry if Mistress dies on page 58-59. Are they a family, or are they just a group of orphans? Within this family structure of ownership, are the characters, such as Lina, allowed more agency then elsewhere? Also, it is interesting that after Lina’s village perishes, the Presbyterians force her to loose any cultural and familial identity attached to her village. Yet, when she lives with Sir, on page 48, she seems to be able to reclaim some of her lost cultural identity. How does this odd family function in a novel about slavery? How does the family operate when considering question of identity?
Ariel Bowen :
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the book the main character discusses the topic of omens. Different images and events come into her life that she tries to interpret. “I sort them and try to recall, yet I know I am missing much, like not reading the garden snake crawling up to the door saddle to die.” Do you think that these images are actually predicting something or she is just reading too much into it? Do you think that this particular image of the snake represents anything that has already happened in the story or will it foreshadow a future event?
In Morrison’s A Mercy, there are many instances in which women undergo a process of evaluation before they enter the household of Jacob Vaark. Looking at pages 20-21 and 52-53, how would you describe the respective processes by which Rebekka and Lina are evaluated? Do the women’s respective positions in the household cause them to be judged by different criteria? What does this process of evaluation suggest about women’s role in the novel?
ReplyDeleteCaitlin Kelly -
ReplyDeleteThe Toni Morrison's, A Mercy, Florens begins her narrative with: "The beginning begins with shoes. When a child I am never able to abide being barefoot and always beg for shoes, anybody's shoes even on the hottest days. My mother, a minha mae, is frowning, is angry at what she says are my prettify ways. Only bad women wear high heels. I am dangerous, she says, and wild but she relents... As a result, Lina says, my feet are useless, will always be too ternder for life and never have the strong soles, tougher than leather, that lfe requires. Lina is correct... Who else these days has the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady?" (4) What do you believe is the significance of beginning the story in this manner? What do you believe the metaphor of the shoes and pehaps the description of "tender soles" says about Florens? Finally, do you think this could be a forshadowing for the events Florens will encounter throughout the novel, and how?
Today, I went to the beach front with my kids. I found a sea
ReplyDeleteshell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said "You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear." She placed the shell to her ear and screamed.
There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her
ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is totally off topic but
I had to tell someone!
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