In each of her Canadian-set novels, Margaret Laurence features a female protagonist searching for her identity. Hagar, in The Stone Angel; Rachel, in A Jest of God; Stacey, in The Fire-Dwellers; and Morag, in The Diviners--each one, in her own way and with a different degree of success, attempts to discover who she is and what her life means. Through these characters, Laurence expresses her faith in the power of language, for it is at least partly through language that each achieves her measure of victory and comes to terms with herself and her life.For Hagar Shipley, words used precisely, cleverly, and artistically constitute a source of pleasure and pride. Yet Hagar often uses language to assert her superiority and otherwise to distance herself from others and from life. Her epiphany arrives late, but not too late for her to speak at least once "the heart's truth." Rachel Cameron, like Hagar, demonstrates a keen sensitivity to language. Rachel, however, listens to the words and voices which she hears in an effort not to control others but to discover an authentic voice, and thus an identity, of her own. As she learns to speak of herself to others, she also learns that disclosure is not always necessary, for silence can heal as well as threaten.Rachel's sister Stacey also learns to accept silence. Terrified by the violence of modern life, Stacey seeks to build bridges between herself and those she loves. Her frequent failures to communicate lead her to question the efficacy of language, but in the end she affirms language as a means of communication as she also comes to see that "the silences aren't all bad." Her conclusions are shared by Morag Gunn, who has as a successful "wordsmith" made words her life, yet who has learned to accept occasional silences. Morag's relationships with others and her achievements as a novelist have convinced her of the power, as well as the limitations, of language, a conviction that we can assume her creator, Margaret Laurence, shares.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/177744 |
| Date | 03 June 2011 |
| Creators | Lindberg, Laurie K. |
| Contributors | Rippy, Frances Mayhew |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | iv, 196 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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