How does Florens's character change from the beginning of A Mercy to the end?

Florens begins the novel as a slave girl who is distraught over the way that her mother has rejected and abandoned her. To clarify, Florens believes that her mother had sold her to Jacob Vaark to settle a debt, a fact which haunts Florens in both waking and sleeping life; she also believes that her mother cares more about Florens's brother than she does about Florens.

Florens, thus, starts out as a wild and emotionally...

Florens begins the novel as a slave girl who is distraught over the way that her mother has rejected and abandoned her. To clarify, Florens believes that her mother had sold her to Jacob Vaark to settle a debt, a fact which haunts Florens in both waking and sleeping life; she also believes that her mother cares more about Florens's brother than she does about Florens.

Florens, thus, starts out as a wild and emotionally unsteady girl. In the process of falling love with—and later being rejected by—the blacksmith, Florens begins to form an identity of her own. Florens eventually must journey to seek out the blacksmith once more in order to send him on a quest to treat Jacob's wife, Rebekka, who has fallen ill. When the blacksmith returns, he hits Floren; however, she hits him back with a pair of tongs and flees his house. 

By the end of the novel, Florens learns that her mother gave her up to protect her from experiencing the same abuse and rape that her mother had while living as a plantation slave in the South. This revelation helps calm the tempest within Florens and allows her to embrace herself and her identity:

From all those who believe they have claim and rule over me. I am nothing to you. You say I am wilderness. I am. Is that a tremble on your mouth, in your eye? Are you afraid? You should be.