Definition of Term INTRODUCTION
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colonizers who have an authority take control the political power around the land that black people settle. They exploit the otherness as a weakness. They treat them
cruelly and pretend them as nonhuman. Samira Spatzek in her Black Study Paper entitled
“Own Yourself, Woman”: Toni Morrison’s A Mercy, Early Modernity, and Property. Spatzek’s
study uses John Locke’s “Two Treaties of Government”. She reveals in black
study related to the Western subjectivity. Depending on historical time, with early modern conceptions that is allocated to the characters of A Mercy, Samira Spatzek
says, “Jacob Vaark enters A Mercy as a setter with high moral commitments. The
way in which his arrival at the coast of colonial Virginia is narrated is reminiscent of numerous accounts published by seventeenth-century European explorers of the
New World” http:elib.suub.uni-bremen.deedocs, September 9, 2015. Morrison creates Jacob Vaark in her novel which has high responsibility and humanity. He
sees slave as a human being rather than a property. Jacob Vaark comes from England and arrives in Virginia, making the settlement and employing people in
America. In this case, Morrison reminds the readers of Jacob Vaark who comes to America around 17
th
century, the time when European countries come to the New World in America.
The next study is MM. Rahayu Ambarastuti a graduate student from Sanata Dharma University, entitled
“Toni Morrison’s A Mercy: The Black Woman Sla
ve’s Struggle to Gain Freedom in America in the 1600s”. In her thesis, she wants to emphasize how Florens’s abilities can motivate herself to achieve her
freedom. In her analysis she says, “Florens doesn’t want to let the blacksmith feel
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right about his judgments, and that is why she fights back. She shows her ability to control her emotions, problems, and stay focused on her purpose”. It means that
by using their own abilities to struggle, Florens struggles for equality and better treatments toward their race. In this case, she uses her own capabilities and
cleverness to show that she can gain the freedom. The other study is Victoria Sulistyaningrum a graduate student from
Sanata Dharma University, entitled “Toni Morrison’s A Mercy: The Black
Women’s Reactions toward The White’s Treatments in The 17
th
Century ”. In her
thesis, she analyses about the reactions of a black female slave under white society around 17
th
century in America. In her thesis she concludes that “Florens faces some danger, she is able to read the situation and reaction that she should
take. She uses her knowledge to survive”. As an African female slave, Florens
actually wants to get her equal rights as human beings. Even though white people have given bad treatment to many slaves, they try to fight against them with their
ability that they have. In Sulistyaningrum’s thesis, Florens as an inferior uses her
abilities and her cleverness to solve the problem in order to be an independent woman.
Several reviews, thesis, and essays talk about Toni Morrison’s novel A
Mercy with many different ideas to be analyzed. Her novel is very vivid because of the historical background that makes it real. Several aspects such racial
discrimination, slavery, colonialism and humanitarian aspects are exist in this novel. That is way several people make review, essay, paper and thesis that used
this novel as their main study. Meanwhile, the writer also uses this novel in order
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to analyse an African female slave ’s characteristics. The writer also describes the
specific point about Florens’s bad experiences as an oppressed girl under control of her white master. Primarily, the writer analyses the moral values revealed
through Florens’s bad experiences from the novel A Mercy which is different from the other reviewers.