In The Diviners by Margaret Laurence, she makes the statement that “history and fiction interweave.” After watching the video Margaret Laurence: First Lady of Manawaka, which discusses Laurence’s past and motivations behind this book, it becomes clear that many of her fictional characters could portray real life matters from Laurence’s own life.
In the video, Laurence describes her life growing up as a child and the loss of her mother and father that she had to deal with at such a young age. After this occurrence, she describes how she never really felt “at home” while living in Manitoba, and this made her feel as if she were always on a quest, searching for something more in life. She says, “When I was 18, I couldn 't wait to get out of that …show more content…
At first the aspect of religion seemed to be very random in this book, but after finding out this aspect of Laurence’s past, it becomes clear that this point in her life could be paralleled with her fictional character Christie. She says, “Biblical references and allusions and imagery and so on comes into all my work to a very large extent…I think this has been something which has developed as I have developed, and it is simply part of my own philosophy of life.” Not only is this characters name a pun on Christ, but also the way that Laurence describes this character is very interesting, “Christie doesn’t care whether Morag goes to Sunday school or not. He wouldn’t. He never goes to church himself. Although a believer. But not liking the Reverend McKee” (63). Christie’s character is described as a believer in Christ, but you don’t have to force yourself to be overly committed at the church, just because you are a believer, everyone has their own ways of showing their love for God. Laurence could have portrayed her feelings through this character and her struggle of not wanting to be present at the church she grew up in, but struggling with still maintaining the fact that she was a believer in …show more content…
With the ending of the book, Jules passes away from throat cancer, from possibly smoking too many cigarettes throughout his lifetime. From doing research, I found out that Margaret Laurence herself was diagnosed with Lung cancer and her brother also suffered from Lung cancer. After choosing to give Jules throat cancer, and ending his life at the very end of her book, it seems ironic how closely this fictional characters life, and her life of finding out she had cancer and choosing to end her own life, resemble each other. The narrator says, “This Jules was different. Perhaps he, too, had found that although you needed to do battle, you didn’t always need to, every minute. Or was she interpreting him, as usual, only through her own eyes?” (363). I found this passage significant in that it almost seems as if in this moment of the story, Laurence is talking to herself and possibly pondering on what her brother had gone through and the feelings that she actually had while dealing with losing someone to
In the video, Laurence describes her life growing up as a child and the loss of her mother and father that she had to deal with at such a young age. After this occurrence, she describes how she never really felt “at home” while living in Manitoba, and this made her feel as if she were always on a quest, searching for something more in life. She says, “When I was 18, I couldn 't wait to get out of that …show more content…
At first the aspect of religion seemed to be very random in this book, but after finding out this aspect of Laurence’s past, it becomes clear that this point in her life could be paralleled with her fictional character Christie. She says, “Biblical references and allusions and imagery and so on comes into all my work to a very large extent…I think this has been something which has developed as I have developed, and it is simply part of my own philosophy of life.” Not only is this characters name a pun on Christ, but also the way that Laurence describes this character is very interesting, “Christie doesn’t care whether Morag goes to Sunday school or not. He wouldn’t. He never goes to church himself. Although a believer. But not liking the Reverend McKee” (63). Christie’s character is described as a believer in Christ, but you don’t have to force yourself to be overly committed at the church, just because you are a believer, everyone has their own ways of showing their love for God. Laurence could have portrayed her feelings through this character and her struggle of not wanting to be present at the church she grew up in, but struggling with still maintaining the fact that she was a believer in …show more content…
With the ending of the book, Jules passes away from throat cancer, from possibly smoking too many cigarettes throughout his lifetime. From doing research, I found out that Margaret Laurence herself was diagnosed with Lung cancer and her brother also suffered from Lung cancer. After choosing to give Jules throat cancer, and ending his life at the very end of her book, it seems ironic how closely this fictional characters life, and her life of finding out she had cancer and choosing to end her own life, resemble each other. The narrator says, “This Jules was different. Perhaps he, too, had found that although you needed to do battle, you didn’t always need to, every minute. Or was she interpreting him, as usual, only through her own eyes?” (363). I found this passage significant in that it almost seems as if in this moment of the story, Laurence is talking to herself and possibly pondering on what her brother had gone through and the feelings that she actually had while dealing with losing someone to