They Hatch Alone: The Alienation of the Colonial American Subject in Toni Morrison's A Mercy

This essay examines the trope of “motherlessness” as a metaphor for the natal alienation experienced by the diaspora who populated colonial America. I closely read the five main characters in A Mercy—Florens, Jacob, Lina, Rebekka, and Sorrow—to show how their behavioral responses to “motherlessness” compound their alienation as seventeenth century American subjects