The Vaark Family In Toni Morrison's A Mercy

“A Mercy” by Toni Morrison is a fictional novel, that takes place in 17th century Maryland and it is about a girl name Florens who is a young slave taken by Jacob Vaark when she was 8 years old. The work of Toni Morrison talks about the society during 17th century Maryland. Also, it talks about the relationship between characters in the novel, such as Lina, Sorrow, and blacksmith and there are other characters in the novel. The society during 17th and 18th-century New world were about family, they often lived together, adult children, brothers, sisters, uncle, aunt, and grandparents. But in the case of the Vaark family, they live together with Lina, Sorrow, Florens. In this novel there are different types of characters with a different background such as Lina is a Native American, Sorrow is a servant, Florens is a slave, Blacksmith is a free colored slave and there are other two characters name Willard and Scully who are indentured servants came to New World to serve their sentence. For this novel, I will use …show more content…
Often men and women spend times living and working together, if the husband is away on the journey, it is the wife duty to manage the household and to educate the children but in the novel of “A mercy” Rebekka takes care of the farm and Lina help her out and also Sorrow and Florens help out her on the farm. Father and the mother during this time take time to educate their children and to pick out what is best for them even though the child wants to do something else. When the husband is away on the journey wife are responsible for their household or the farm. In the book, Family Life in the 17th and 18th century America, Ben Franklin wrote,”I leave home and undertake this long voyage more cheerful, as I can rely on your prudence in the management of my affairs; and education of my dear child.”