2。 Literature Review

         The novel, A Mercy, was one of the most important novels to present the tragic experiences of black slaves so it has attracted plenty of researchers。 Among those scholars who had studied the novel, the following ones deserve more attention。 Aretha Phiri published a journal to introduce the close relationship between the life experiences of Toni Morrison and the description of black protagonists in her novels, including A Mercy (Phiri 43)。 Jane Bakerman organized an interview with Toni Morrison。 In the journal to present the interview, Jane wrote that Toni thought that the most important theme of the novel, A Mercy, was the loss of love that led to a series of tragic experiences of the protagonist so the research of Jane presented the objective standpoints about Morrison’s works (Bakerman 124)。 In short, western scholars used to make a variety of researches about the novel written by Toni Morrison and their researches provided more information about the representative works written by Morrison。 

        Similar with western scholars, Chinese researchers used to make efforts to study the novel, A Mercy。 To be specific, Liu Minxia and Yang Shaoliang made a research about the construction of the characters’ cognitive model in the novel A Mercy (Liu &Yang 44)。 Besides, Liang Xue made a research about the theme of the novel, A Mercy。 Liang made the statement that the most important theme of the novel was the growth of protagonist (Liang Analysis 32)。 In addition, Dong Chunping studied the similarities and differences between the female characters in two novels written by Toni Morrison。 In the research of Dong, she compared Denver in Beloved and Florens in A Mercy so as to find out the similarities and distinctions between the two female characters。论文网

          Despite that other people have already made a variety of researches about the novel, A Mercy, there are still some defects with the previous studies: although there have been several researches about the growth of the protagonist of the novel, they normally focused on the influence of the environmental factors on the protagonist and ignored the efforts made by Florens to reach her goals and to get mature。 That is exactly the most noticeable differences between this research and the previous studies, that is, the originality of this research。 

3。 Growth of Florens in A Mercy 

As mentioned in the second chapter, the novel A Mercy presents the tragic experiences of the protagonist as a black lady。 Despite that the protagonist Florens had suffered much from the inequality between the white and the black, she had been trying her best to gain love and respect in her own way but it turned out that the lack of proper self-identification prevented Florens from establishing proper interpersonal relationship with others (Che 8)。 The failure to make friends via satisfying others made Florens realize that she needs to insist on her own identity so that she could have the real friends。 In the following part, the growth of Florens as presented in the novel, A Mercy, will be analyzed in details from three aspects。 

3。1 Development of her self-identification

In this novel, A Mercy, the protagonist Florens was described as a tragic girl who was abandoned by her blood mother because the mother was incapable of protecting her own daughter。 Such an act led to the great fear of Florens for the leaving of her families or friends so she tried all her best to satisfy others and lost her own identity。 However, after a series of defects, Florens gradually realized that it was important to insist on her own identity

3。1。1 Identity in her own family 

The first obstruction on the way of Florens’s growth is the identity of her own family。 At the time when the story in the novel A Mercy happened, the black suffered much from the evil slavery。 Such a system “allowed the rich white to purchase and sell the black as if they were goods”(Liang Morrison 420)。 Besides, after the black slaves were purchased, the slave owners could treat them like animals: they may be raped, slashed or even killed by the owners。 Therefore, the black people, especially black females had to make some inhumane choices for the sake of their families。 That was exactly what Florens’s mother did: as a black slave, the mother of Florens used to suffer much from her inhumane owner。 She used to be raped by her owner and was forced to do laborious work, which made her eager to send her own daughter away。 The humanity of Jacob enabled her to make the decision of begging Jacob to take Florens away。 However, such a decision deprived Florens of her right to know the unique culture of the black people, which made Florens fail to establish her own identity as a black girl under the guidance of her mother。