토니 모리슨의 『자비』에서의 건국 신화 해체

Abstract

In A Mercy, Morrison asks the question about the mythology of settlement of American people by using overwhelming biblical quotations. The people who arrived in the New World hoped that their community would be the 'city on the hill.' In A Mercy, Morrison reveals how white settlers try to create an earthly paradise only for themselves with narrow understanding of religion, and how dark-skinned slaves experience the curse of slavery and how they are associated with the concept of evil due to their skin color. Jacob plays the role of an American Adam in the novel. He envies D'Ortega's aristocratic appearance and his property despite his disgust for D'Ortega's vulgarity and slave abuse. He tries to achieve his dream through the reproduction of D'Ortega's house. Morrison criticizes Jacob for his ostentation and participation in the slave trade through his death. Rebekka comes to America as Jacob’s chosen wife. She is disappointed with the unkindness and religious dogma of the local church. However, after Jacob's death, she returns to church only for her own survival, destroying her relations with female slaves. Florens, an African slave girl, encounters some christians who are suspicious if she is a minion of the Black Man during her dangerous trip. They do not try to grasp her beliefs but only see her blackness. She realizes that something precious is leaving her. Lina, a native slave, tries to be a christian to avoid being alienated but the christians discriminate her and finally sell her to Jacob giving up her conversion. Lina comes to rely upon her own ancestors' lessons and nature in order to stay alive. Morrison blames the christians for their sins and greed hidden under the mask of religion and gives a warning of acting violently in the name of religion.