On The Community Consciousness In Toni Morrison’s A Mercy

A Mercy(2008),the ninth work of Toni Morrison(1931-2019),depicts the different fates of people of various races in America in the17 th century.Through the narratives of blacks,Indians,mulattos,and whites,Morrison tells how they built a common home,but it eventually fell apart.Since the novel’s publication,many critics and scholars have conducted in-depth research on it from narratology,postcolonialism,feminism,and psychoanalysis.And few scholars pay attention to the common home in the novel,Jacob’s farm,which eventually collapsed,and its final collapse is even more thought-provoking.This thesis,based on Ferdinand T(?)nnies’ s community theory,explores the manifestations and causes of Jacob’s farm from its establishment to its disintegration from three levels: spirit,place,and blood.Meanwhile,with the help of French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy’s community concept,the thesis analyses the consequences of the farm’s collapse and explores the enlightenment of its disintegration to the harmonious coexistence of contemporary human beings.Besides the Introduction and Conclusion,this thesis is divided into three chapters.Chapter One starts from three forms of community: spirit,place,and blood.It shows the common will pursuit,safe environment,and close emotional connection of farm members.This chapter depicts the harmony of Jacob’s farm in the early days through the analysis of the three forms of community.Chapter Two expounds on the predicament in Jacob’s farm as a community from three aspects of spirit,place,and blood.The disagreements arise within the farm,resulting in the disappearance of the common will the members pursued,which leads to the breakdown of the community of spirit;the failure to establish a unified custom within the farm also threatens the community of place;the emotional split between members deepens the crisis of the community by blood.Chapter Three discusses the negative impact of society on the community and the living state of the farm members after the community collapse.According to T(?)nnies and Nancy,society and community are opposed.After the community disintegrated completely,the members could only exist on the farm as singularities.Meanwhile,the ending of the farm also reflects the characteristics of the singularity breaking the internal unity of the community and conveys Morrison’s thinking on the construction of modern communities of various races,classes,and genders.Through the above research,this thesis concludes that stories on the American continent in the 17 th century allude to the attempts of people of different races,genders,and classes in the process of community building in the 21 st century,to make readers reflect on their living conditions and call on people to build a community together.