A Mercy Literary Elements

Novel

Primarily the 1680s in the English colonies (New York and Maryland)

There are multiple points of view and narrators in the novel, changing from one chapter to another. One of the narrators is Florens who presents the events from a first-person point of view and has a subjective perspective. There is also a third-person narrator who narrates the events from an objective point of view.

Tone: anxious, bitter, desolate, meditative
Mood: haunting, anxious, melancholic, futile

Protagonists: Lina, Sorrow, Rebekka, and Florens. Antagonists: the men who abuse and take advantage of them.

Will Florens successfully reach the Blacksmith and bring him back to Rebekka so he can try and heal her from the pox?

Jacob Vaark dies and the other characters must deal with the fallout from his death.

1. Jacob visits the plantation and sees the mansion D’Ortega built for himself. The obsessive way in which Jacob inspects the mansion foreshadows his later decision to build one for himself as well.
2. Jacob's confidence that "time and health were on their side" (18), meaning himself and Rebekka, is subtle foreshadowing; his confidence in such a time and such a world is foolhardy, and indeed, he does die not long after this cogitation.

1. "The Angola part of Portugal" (18) is an understatement for the European country's domination of that region of Africa through the slave trade.

1. In terms of historical allusions, the entire novel is saturated with references to actual events, people, places, and more: slavery, the colonies, the witch trials, the eradication of Native Americans, indentured servitude, and more.
2. Nicene Creed.
3. "he saw forests untouched since Noah" (12) is an allusion to the biblical story of Noah.
4. "Abhor that arrant whore of Rome" (14) was uttered by John Rogers in 1554; he was a Protestant minister martyred by the Papists, burned at the stake.
5. There are many biblical allusions along with the Noah one, such as Adam and Eve, "Job's comforters" (91).

Some of the main images center on the natural world of the American colonies—it is rugged, open, expansive, seemingly unending in its potential and possibility. That imagery is beguiling and misleading, however, for only white men—not women, slaves, Native Americans, even free Black men—have the opportunity to take advantage of such a world.

Other frequent images are of the body, especially women's bodies, and how trauma and exploitation are written on their hands, stomachs, faces, etc.

Another image is of the orphan, a child abandoned by its parents through neglect or death; this is a reminder of the difficulty of colonial life.

1. "The timid enjoyed a rampaging avenging god" (74).

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1. "the fog wavered and split" (10).
2. "Upon entering this privately owned country, his feelings fought one another to a draw" (13).
3. "Disdain, however difficult to cloak, must be put aside" (14).
4. "time and health were on their side" (21).
5. "Some already showing leaf hold their breath until the snow melts" (41).
6. "Yet the animosity, utterly useless, died in the womb" (53).
7. "a flirtatious sun poured soft yellow light toward the foot of Mistress' bed" (59).
8. "Spring, as usual, was skittish" (66).
9. "These careful words, closed up and wide open, will talk to themselves" (161).