Transcending The Absurd: A New Humanistic Reading Of Toni Morrison’s A Mercy

Since the Industrial Revolution, the cognitive ability of human beings has been improvedin leaps and bounds. Yet confrontation between man and the world is much more serious thanever before. Man becomes the stranger of the incomprehensible world and suffers inenormous the absurd feeling. For the group which is marginalized both in society and culture,the absurd feeling is even more of a problem. Rationalism, scientism and optimism whichonce dominated western philosophy are increasingly questioned. At the same time, the notionof the absurd aroused great attention among many writers and philosophers, while AlbertCamus gave the most compelling analysis on it. Moreover, his annotation and researches onrebellion extended the connotation of humanism, and blazed a trail to freedom and happinessfor the people who had lost themselves in the absurd.In this historical background, Toni Morrison, the African American female novelist whohas won the Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize, published A Mercy in2008. By revealing thereactions of the lonely individuals with different colors and identities towards the absurdworld, this novel expresses Morrison’s ultimate concern for humans’ absurd living condition,and explores the way to transcend the absurd through rebellion. A Mercy made the New YorkTimes Book Review list of “10Best Books of2008” and aroused extensive attention andfavorable comments. In China, there are a number of published articles which are mainlyabout the narrative, aesthetics, sex, race, sociology, ethics, and culture. Yet there is noresearcher who expounds Morrison’s focus on the attitude and fate of human beings whenconfronting the absurd.So this thesis will read A Mercy from the new humanistic perspective. Through theanalysis of the manifestation of the absurd, the consequences of the absurd on man,community and the world, and human being’s reaction to the absurd, it attempts to reveal that rebellion is the only way to transcend the absurd and get freedom.The thesis falls into five parts: Introduction, Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Threeand Conclusion.The first part mainly includes a brief introduction to the life and literaryaccomplishments of Toni Morrison and her novel A Mercy, the literature review, the generalintroduction to Camus’ new humanism and the theoretical framework of the thesis.Chapter One reveals the manifestation of the absurd in A Mercy. Based on a diachronicinquiry into the absurd, this part expounds the absurd which is rooted in the confrontationbetween the irrationality of the world and humans’ overwhelming desire for clarity. In AMercy it is manifested by the disharmony between man and world, the alienation betweenindividuals, and the rupture between man and self.Chapter Two analyzes the consequences of the absurd in A Mercy. The interdependenceamong man, world and the absurd makes them coexist temporarily, but the confrontation asthe essence of their relationship makes the tragedy inevitable. In A Mercy, the absurd finallyresults in the orphanhood of individuals, the collapse of the community, and the death row ofthe world.Chapter Three discusses the characters’ rebellion against the absurd. Beginning with thenotion of the rebellion, it analyzes two aspects of the rebellion, namely the permanentpersonal revolt and the shared rebellion of the community, and finally reveals how to achievefreedom through rebelling against the absurd.Through the above analysis, it is to conclude that A Mercy as a whole presents an idealworld which eventually goes to disillusionment, thereby artistically reproduces the absurdityof the world. At the same time, the novel embodies Morrison’s pursuit of an ideal life byadvocating the permanent rebellion of Sisyphus and the collective rebellion of Prometheus.