starts after her first real love interest, the Blacksmith, has already left "with no goodbye." When given an opportunity to rekindle this relationship, Florens lets her abandonment issues cloud her judgment, resulting in jealousy towards Malaik. She accidentally breaks his arm while trying to get him to stop crying, which in turn leads to the Blacksmith striking and then sending her away. Thetragedy here is that it is Florens's jealousy that causes the Blacksmith to choose Malaik over her.

In the final chapter of the novel, the reader finds out that Florens was not, in fact, abandoned by her mother—at least, not for the reason she believes. While it is tragic to know Florens may never learn the truth, the reader at least is able to understand the mother's reasoning—that Jacob seemed the lesser of two evils:

When the tall man with yellow hair came to dine, I saw he hated the food and I saw things in his eyes that said he did not trust Senhor, Senhora or their sons. His way, I thought, is another way. His country far from here. There was no animal in his heart. He never looked at me the way Senhor does. He did not want.

This confession makes the events that occur in Florens's life seem a little less devastating; while she is forced away from her family, abandoned by her first love not once but twice, and eventually subjected to Rebekka's cruel behavior after Jacob's death, one is left with the sense that her life could have been much worse. Had she remained with her mother, she most likely would have continued to attract the attention of D'Ortega and the other men at his plantation, potentially leading to her being raped as her mother had been. While her mother was able to endure it, Florens was only a child and may not have been able to survive such abusive behavior. "How unlikely their survival," her mother says of other child slaves. "How likely another herd will come to destroy them." Hence, when her mother sent her away with Jacob Vaark, who had "no animal in his heart," she was not abandoning Florens or favoring her baby brother. Rather, she was showing her "a mercy."

The novel contains many examples of various mercies that are shown towards the characters. There is first and foremost the mercy that results in Florens being brought to the Vaark household which is so important to the novel. However, there are also many different examples of more minor, quiet mercies that permeate throughout the story.

Vaark for example shows great mercy when he takes in those who are outcasts in society and not wanted anywhere else. This is echoed by the blacksmith taking in an unwanted child. Lina, through her "adoption" of Florens and the way that she becomes a substitute mother to her, shows mercy too. Most significantly, the title of the story is used at the end of the novel, when the mother of Florens tells her that she was not abandoned but saved, Morrison deliberately specifies that what Florens survived not through an act of God or a miracle but through the mercy of a human. She writes it was not:

...a miracle. Bestowed by God. It was a mercy. Offered by a human.

Florens is saved as a result of mercy, and as a result, this novel is a testament to the power and strength of mercy and how it can be a force for good in this world.