{"pk":6327,"title":"They Hatch Alone: The Alienation of the Colonial American Subject in Toni Morrison's A Mercy","subtitle":null,"abstract":"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.","language":"en","license":{"name":"All rights reserved","short_name":"Copyright","text":"© the author(s). All rights reserved.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/authors"},"keywords":[{"word":"Toni Morrison"},{"word":"Diaspora"},{"word":"alienation"},{"word":"motherlessness"},{"word":"Colonialism"},{"word":"Literature in English, North America"}],"section":"Articles","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0ds156cw","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Teresa","middle_name":"G","last_name":"Jimenez","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California, Berkeley","department":"None"}],"date_submitted":"2009-09-24T07:00:00Z","date_accepted":"2009-09-24T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2010-01-13T08:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/our_buj/article/6327/galley/3777/download/"}]}