English 407 Name: ___________________________

Critical Lenses and A Mercy

First, look over the quotes I have provided from the text and apply the lenses we discussed in class to form an analysis
of the quotes. Then, select quotes from the novel for the lenses with blanks in both columns, write out the quote, and
then provide your analysis/interpretation of the quote using the corresponding lens.

Type of Text from A Mercy Interpretation/Analysis

Lens
Marxist “For the first time he had not tricked, not flattered,
not manipulated, but gone head to head with the rich
gentry. He realized not for the first time that only
things not bloodlines or character separated them.”
(27).
On the one hand, Vaark (and by extension, Morrison) seems
to undermine genetic foundations for class differences (“not
bloodlines”). On the other hand, class lines stay intact; the
gentry class has just absorbed one more member.

Marxist “In this territory he could not be sure of friend or foe.

Half a dozen years ago an army of blacks, natives,
whites, mulattoes—freedmen, slaves and indentured
—had waged war against local gentry led by
members of that very class. When that ‘people’s
war’ lost its hopes to the hangman, the work it had
done—which included the slaughter of opposing
tribes and running the Carolinas off their land—
spawned a thicket of new laws authorizing chaos in
defense of order. By eliminating manumission,
gatherings, travel and bearing arms for black people
only; by granting license to any white to kill any
black for any reason; by compensating owners for a
slave’s maiming or death, they separated and
protected all whites from all others forever” (10).
Feminist “Although they had nothing in common with the
views of each other, they had everything in common
with one thing: the promise and threat of men. Here,
they agreed, was where security and risk lay. And
both had come to terms. Some, like Lina, who had
experienced both deliverance and destruction at their
hands, withdrew. Some, like Sorrow, who
apparently was never coached by other females,
became their play. Some like her shipmates fought
them. Others, the pious, obeyed them. And a few,
like herself, after a mutually loving relationship,
became like children when the man was gone” (98).

Feminist
 Type of Lens Text from A Mercy Interpretation/Analysis
Psychoanalytic “The heat was still pressing, his bed
partner overactive, yet he slept well
enough. Probably because his dreams
were of a grand house of many rooms
rising on a hill above the fog” (35).

Psychoanalytic

New Criticism “I walk alone except for the eyes that

join me on my journey. Eyes that do
not recognize me, eyes that examine me
for a tail, an extra teat, a man’s whip
between my legs. Wondering eyes that
stare and decide if my navel is in the
right place if my knees bend backward
like the forelegs of a dog. They want to
see if my tongue is split like a snake’s
or if my teeth are filing to points to
chew them up. To know if I can spring
out of the darkness and bite. Inside I
am shrinking. I climb the streambed
under watching trees and know I am not
the same. I am losing something with
every step I take. I can feel the drain.
Something precious is leaving me. I am
a thing apart. With the letter I belong
and am lawful. Without it I am a weak
calf abandon by the herd, a turtle
without a shell, a minion with no telltale
signs but a darkness I am born with,
outside, yes, but inside as well and the
inside dark is small, feathered and
toothy” ( 115).
 Type of Lens Text from A Mercy Interpretation/Analysis
New Criticism

Deconstructionist “By and by the detritus of the day

washed off, including the faint trace of
coon’s blood. As he walked back to the
inn, nothing was in his way. There was
the heat, of course, but no fog, gold or
gray, impeded him. Besides, a plan was
taking shape. Knowing full well his
shortcomings as a farmer—in fact his
boredom with its confinement and
routine—he had found commerce more
to his taste. How he fondled the idea of
an even more satisfying enterprise.
And the plan was as sweet as the sugar
on which it was based. And there was a
profound difference between the
intimacy of slave bodies at Jublio and a
remote labor force in Barbados. Right?
Right, he thought, looking at a sky
vulgar with stars. Clear and right. The
silver that glittered there was not at all
unreachable. And that wide swath of
cream pouring through the stars was his
for the tasting” (35).
Deconstructionist