Religion, Morality, and Otherness Theme Analysis

Throughout A Mercy, the white characters define the people living in North America in terms of their religion, separating them and stereotyping them by religious group. As characters draw their own social distinctions and outline the biases they associate with others, Morrison shows the North American landscape to be one peopled by a diverse array of religions. According to A Mercy, the religious makeup in the colonies is a rich mix of Protestant sects, Catholics, and native religions.

As characters encounter people who are different from them theologically, they often respond to this difference with skepticism and mistrust. For example, when Morrison’s Protestant characters refer to “papists” (Catholics), they comment on their moral bankruptcy and disdain their extravagant lifestyles. Take, for example, Jacob’s judgment of Catholic D’Ortega, who he observes in disgust, and whose moral depravity, bad taste, and excess Jacob associates with his Catholicism. The narrator suggests that Jacob’s Protestant roots cause him to object to D’Ortega making money through the slave trade, although Jacob is implicated in the slave trade himself.

This animosity between religious groups is not limited to tension between Catholics and Protestants, however. Rebekka, a Protestant, dislikes the Anabaptists because they refused to baptize her daughter. In another instance, Rebekka refers to Quakers as “horrible,” highlighting the intense antagonism in the relationships between religious sects.

Interestingly enough, however, non-white characters who observe the actions of the Europeans do not pay attention to the distinctions between their religions, instead focusing on the horrific violence that Europeans as a group have brought to the continent. Lina uses the term “Europes” to discuss the culture, legal practices, and atrocities of white people, describing how they stole her land. Lina effectively erases the minute religious differences between Europeans that the European characters see as highly important amongst themselves, making them seem arbitrary and minor in comparison to horrific acts of violence from which all Europeans benefit to the detriment of native people.

And in fact, religion and religious beliefs are often used fairly explicitly to reinforce racism and the oppression of black and native people. For example, Rebekka notes that Anabaptists assert that it is impossible for natives and black people to go to heaven. Additionally, religion is used as a tool to erase native and African culture, like when white people force Lina to leave behind her native religion for their European one, or when Florens’s mother adopts Catholicism. These forced conversions are especially ironic since in the novel Christianity proves to be ineffective in comparison to other non-Christian forms of worship and healing. It is the Blacksmith’s alternative healing methods that save Rebekka, not Christian prayer.

As the Europeans fight over which brand of Christianity is best, their religions come across as completely divorced from actual morality, which is supposed to be one of the most important reasons and supports for religion. Morrison draws the reader’s attention to the lack of true morality in European religion in several instances, including when she shows the treatment of Widow Ealing and Daughter Jane. Daughter Jane appears to be sick, and her community is persecuting her and her widowed mother because the girl is supposedly a “demon.” This shows how religion as practiced by many in the colonies can be harsh and alienate members of communities (like widows and single mothers) who are already marginalized. Meanwhile, Widow Ealing and Daughter Jane show Florens true goodness when they take her in and feed her, displaying how they are more morally good than their fanatically religious neighbors.

Morrison also highlights how members of all the Christian religions present in early America seem to be complicit in slavery. Catholics like D’Ortega partake in the slave trade actively, finding no moral qualms with the practice. Although Protestants like Jacob seem to take issue with slavery from a moral perspective, their religion does not impede them from benefiting from it indirectly. Morrison draws attention to this irony through the symbolism on the mansion that Jacob builds, which features the Christian imagery of a snake on the metalwork of the house’s gate. The snake alludes to the snake in the Garden of Eden, which represents sin. This suggests that Jacob’s wealth and the house he built with it are symbols of sin, since they are the result of slave trade profits. In short, Morrison offers the reader a damning portrait of the Christian landscape of early America, one plagued by infighting but utterly devoid of true morality.