"A Mercy" Essay

890 words 4 pages
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Cris Damianos
English 12
Ms. Hicks
September 3, 2012
WC:

Aesop, a renowned Greek fabulist and story teller once said that “every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either” Here he is trying to say that before we judge or lean towards one side of a story, we should always be aware of the other. I believe Toni Morrison is trying to prove this point in her novel a mercy by depicting her story from the perspectives of various characters in the book. In doing this, the reader quickly learns to look at all sides of a story before jumping to false conclusions. In her novel, a mercy, Toni Morrison takes the reader into the minds of the characters Lina and Sorrow in order to demonstrate the …show more content…

Sorrow’s explained her careless work and wandering as reasons to go and play with Twin, who brought her comfort. Morrison continued to drill into the reader the reality of Sorrows misbehavior, in order to make them aware of the misunderstanding they had made, and to fill them with new emotions of empathy and pity towards her. Morrison builds up the readers anger towards Sorrow, in order to truly awaken them when the reality is revealed and they realize that Sorrow is only an innocent, scarred, young girl who strives for safety and guidance. Through galvanizing the reader with a the truth about Sorrow, Morrison crudely teaches them that you should always assess every side of a story before jumping to false conclusions. There is no doubt that through planting a hatred of Sorrow early on in the book she was setting them up for the tough reality that Sorrow was in fact the opposite of what they accused her of being. Through Lina’s perspective the reader views Sorrow as a lazy, good for nothing, evil presence when in truth she was nothing but a young girl with a wondering imagination. By revealing this to the reader, Morrison crudely stirs up feelings of pity and empathy in them to blatantly display the mistake they had made. Never stick to one side of a story, because you never know what the others

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