Rachel Cameron In Margaret Laurence's A Jest Of God

The most important lesson for Rachel that comes out of this situation is that after wearing the disgusted sweater she has become even older, and it was tied to the experience instead of the birthday itself. She understands that it is the challenge she needs to grow up faster as she will receive additional benefits of behaving the way she wants and resisting to the outside irritators. As for the literature techniques, the author applies language, diction and symbolism to reveal the issues of experience, aging, knowledge, power, authority and freedom. The discovering is gaining age are conveyed with the help of the memories of eleven-year-old girl on her birthday. Rachel resists her humiliation from Mrs. Pierce, and that is the exact moment when her “smart eleven” comes as well[2].

As a main character we may get a different impression of Nick since we are now analysing his personality and how he interacts with the other characters in the story. We read numerous pronouns in the first chapter, ‘I’, suggesting that he is self-indulgent and pompous. For instance, once at Gatsby’s party, Nick only kisses Jordan Baker because he ‘had no girl’, conveying he only kissed her because there was no one else there. This makes Nick seem selfish and arrogant as he is only thinking of himself. To the reader, we

Immediately preceding his statement about being one of the few honest people he has ever known, he admits to both falsely proclaiming his love and perpetuating a "vague understanding" he had no intention of fulfilling. What's more, Nick takes his long-belated decision to now, finally, deal with the situation as evidence of his perfect honesty-ignoring entirely the preceding weeks and months of deception!

She is a snobby, whining girl with incorrect vocabulary. We get this feel of Rachel from the style in which her point of view is written. For example she said “executrate’” instead of ‘execute’, “autography” instead of autobiography, and “precipitation” instead of ‘participation’. When Rachel goes back into the house to try to salvage one ‘important’ thing, she says; "Not my clothes, there wasn’t time, and not the Bible-it didn’t seem worth saving at that moment, so help me God. It had to be my mirror.” We as readers conclude that Rachel is a girl who cares more about her appearance, than she does for her education; she revolves around herself and is ignorant of the rest of the world. However, readers acknowledge that Rachel is the only character in the novel to truly understand that the Price family did not belong in the Congo. She asserts from the very beginning that her father wouldn't succeed in changing the natives, instead acknowledging that the Congo would change the family instead.

Beyond racial divide, Kingsolver portrays how Rachel’s self-obsession leaves no room for her family in order

This inner defiance gives evidence to Rachel’s determination and individuality. The sweater now represents a sort of barrier and if she submits herself to it, she fears the world of ages and maturity.

The second parent child conflict is depicted in how Rachel wants to have a voice in how she runs her life within the family. She is discredited by her father

As Nick moves into West Egg, his life begins to change from what it used to be. Following his appearance in New York, his cousin Daisy invites him over her house in the East Egg, where he meets Tom Buchanan and Jordan Baker. Nick never judges someone, rather, he gets to know them and their story before making any assumptions, and this is shown many separate times. He knew Tom because they were friends in college, but Jordan was a new face for him and he was interested to find out what she was like. Nick and Jordan form a sort of relationship, propelled by Daisy, as time goes on but it is rather short lived, he felt like she was untrustworthy and the way she acted after Myrtle's, Toms mistresses, death caused Nick to not care about her any more, and lose what love he had for her.

Rachel is the oldest of the four daughters, at 15 years of age, the whiny would-be beauty queen who "cares for naught but appearances," can think only of what she misses: the five-day deodorant pads she forgot to bring, flush toilets, machine-washed clothes and other things, as she says with her willful gift for malapropism, that she has taken "for granted," the bible and her faith were no where near the top of her list. Her only way of surviving in the Congo was simply to not adapt at all; as she says ''The way I see Africa, you don't have to like it but you sure have to admit it's out there. You have your way of thinking and it has its, and never the train ye shall meet!'' Thi

In the short story, Rachel’s parents represent comfort from the outside world. “Mama is making a cake for me tonight, and when Papa gets home everybody will sing Happy birthday, happy birthday to you” (n.p.). The aforesaid quote is mentioned twice

When it comes to allies, Nick is known for making oodles of friends. One of which is Natalie Shaner, who loves kids and takes Latin and Physics with him. Natalie tends not to speak to new people, but when Nick talks to her she can’t stay quiet! Natalie describes him as, “Seeing as… I know him well… he is like a child… However, I would… describe him as the brightest bulb in the box.” Nick loves making new friends. It’s rare to see him without a pal or two around and some even report a few ladies trailing behind him. Nick has no enemies. If someone dislikes him, Nick sits them down, gently yet firmly touching their shoulder, and asks them who hurt them. No one can resist immediately bursting into tears and crying into Nick’s perfect arms. This is just one example of many in which No-Knees Nick aids others generously.

This further impacted the children Rachel and Leah, being the oldest daughters in the family. Rachel was a daughter that loved her father and she at first felt that he was the best person in the world. She would always follow him around and be his little princess, that was until she started to see the bad things that he started doing in the dark, mysterious place they were living in. She started to see how arrogant and defensive he became throughout the community and how he threw hissy fits. She realized that enough was enough and she needed to grow accustomed to this new place by herself, just like the narrator did in the poem. This is because she knew that her dad was just going insane and he wanted too much power. She now felt bad for her mom and what he had done to her, and wanted to side with her mom to get out of the community that they were in because they had enough of it. Another thing that happened in the Congo while she was there was something absurd and scarring to say the least. Her sister had started to hunt with the men for meat and Rachel saw what they did when they killed the poor animals lives. Rachel was so startled and appalled that she had to become a vegetarian for a short time while they were there. This just shows that she had to adapt to a new lifestyle because she could not think of eating a poor animal that had an innocent life, but her sister Leach could have cared

For many years of her childhood, she was constantly teased and abused because she was different. Even through the abuse, Jodee always stayed kind and caring. One person she helped was her high school friend Noreen. Jodee befriended the lonely girl in her speech class, later she learned how much it helped Noreen. Noreen, just like Jodee, was constantly harassed for being different, leading her to have no friends at the high school. Jodee gave Noreen someone to share her pain with, and gave her someone she could trust in. Another person Jodee helped was Marianne. Jodee helped her by working with the deaf children at Holy Ascension, treating Marianne like the little sister she never had. She was an outcast from regular children and the deaf children as well. This was due to the fact that even compared to the deaf kids she was different, and they couldn't understand her.”... A small bungalow, though the home was in need of repair, the yard was well tended” (Blanco 27)This made what Jodee did even more important,because Marianne wasn’t exactly the most wealthy, so she had a life just as bad at home as at school, meaning so much more to have Jodee act as her big sister.. Jodee also helped Rodger, a special ed student in her high school. She worked on a prom for the special ed kids since they were not invited to the regular prom for their school. He was able to feel like he was just a regular student for one night of his life. She

Rachel grew up in a house hold where she had to grow up really quick. In her early teenage years she witnesses her mom struggle through abusive relationships with her step dad and other boyfriends that came after. She eventually became an alcoholic. By the time Rachel was 13 year old, she dropped out of school to take the role of the emotional and financial care taker of her mother. Living in her

     We next see Nick and his reactions to relationships. In “The End of Something” Nick breaks up with his girlfriend Marjorie. He expresses to her that he is bored with his life and that they cannot stay together. This shows that due to Nick’s past, he is not ready for relationships with women. He does not want to live his life in the traditional manner that Marjorie expects him to. Due to his lack of development, he cannot communicate