Jordan Welker, Zachary Simons, Brenden Harrington, Sarah Lyons, Natalie Schuey, Joshua Irizarry
A Mercy by Toni Morrison is set in early colonial America in the late 17th century, a time when slavery was expanding and racial, gender, and class hierarchies were becoming more rigid. Throughout the novel, Florens tries to understand herself and the world around her, but she is constantly derailed by her lack of control over her circumstances. Floren’s journey throughout the novel was pretty much out of her control. While Florens repeatedly tried to do the right thing she was constantly knocked back by other characters acting in bad faith and expelling her to outside forces. In this regard, she is very similar to the people experiencing the housing crisis, along with others facing expulsion. One of the biggest connections between Florens and the people experiencing the housing crisis is the concept of expulsion. Expulsion is forcing a person or thing from something, like a house (Mirriam-Webster). Throughout the novel, Florens is expelled repeatedly, from her mother, from society, and from the blacksmith she believes she “loves”. This expulsion is usually done by people of “higher standing”, for example: her mother, the townspeople, and the blacksmith. This is because Florens did not know any better, in the sense that she was not educated on how the world works. Thus, she would have no understanding of how to “protect” herself from the people in power. This relates to the people expelled from their homes during the 2008 housing crisis because they lacked the knowledge that the people expelling them had, and the majority of the people signing contracts for these homes they could not afford, did not know how to read the fine print of the contracts they were signing. Another connection between the Florens and the housing crisis is people acting in “bad faith” which can be defined as the “lack of honesty in dealing with other people” (Mirriam-Webster). In the novel, the D’Ortega family constantly acts in bad faith with other characters. The D’Ortega’s are a vicious slave-owning family who are always exploiting others for their gain. Since the D’Ortega’s were in debt to Jacob and had no means to repay the man they instead gave Jacob a human being. That human being happened to be Florens in this case who was then separated from her mother in doing so. Jacob also often acts in bad faith in the novel as well as he constantly avoids accepting responsibility for doing nothing with all the injustice and violence happening around him. For example, he relies on tradition and social norms to justify his behavior thereby deflecting any serious examination of his wrongdoing. During the housing crisis, many bankers and lenders also acted in “bad faith” while downplaying the risk involved with subprime mortgages. Credit ratings agencies were also ignoring systemic risk while giving AAA ratings to CDO’s even though the subprime loan was almost destined to fail. With all this going on the Government did almost nothing as policymakers and politicians downplayed and denied the role of financial downregulation in causing the housing crisis (Previous classes/readings). On the other hand, “good faith” is also prevalent in this novel, as it is in the housing crisis. To act in good faith is to act with honesty (Mirriam-Webster). Florence can relate to the unknowing homeowners who have good faith in their hearts but are being brought down by people with more power preying on their lack of knowledge. One example from the book would be when she is told “Your head is empty and your body is wild”(A Mercy, pg. 166). Florence shows signs of good faith, however, it appears very little as Florens is living in a world that does not like her. Despite this, Florens attempts to act in good faith wherever she goes. A key point in the novel that describes this is during her time with daughter Jane. Daughter Jane is the daughter of a widow, who is believed to be a demon, to prove this false her mother whips her legs to prove she can bleed. And, while either directly or indirectly, Florens acts in good faith by distracting the townspeople from Daughter Jane with her letter, as they are convinced she is a demon as well. In return Daughter Jane acts in good faith and helps her escape (A Mercy, pgs. 132-135). During the housing crisis, similar to Florens, the homeowners acted in good faith, signing mortgages and loans, not knowing how predatory they might have been. However, their good faith was returned with bad faith.