In Margaret Laurence's A Jest of God, we find Rachel Cameron constantly inhibited in her thoughts and actions by a variety of forces, both internal and external, and the novel relates her development and eventual surmounting of these obstacles, at least to a degree. For this reason, much of our discussion regarding this work has emphasized its classification as a Bildungsroman, though I am tempted to disagree with this assessment, on several grounds.
First and foremost, Rachel’s personal development is strikingly marginal, at best. While she does discover her sexuality, which instills in her a modicum of assertiveness and self agency by the novel’s conclusion, she still reverts frequently to her old habits with regards to her relationships with others. She does, for instance, turn the tables with regards to her relationship with her mother, assuming her rightful status as the “parent” figure, and uses her newfound bravado to ensure her departure from Manawaka. However, she still cannot bring herself to divulge to her mother her true sentiments; she is unable, even with her newfound confidence, to relate to her mother the resentment she feels for the guilting and domineering behavior by which her actions have been restricted for so many years. Whether this is out of timidity or merely for her mother’s own sake is unclear, though it is possibly a bit of both. Likewise, in her final encounter with Willard, she finds herself unable to truly express how much she has truly hated working at the elementary school, only going so far as to say that “I’ve just lived here long enough.” (204) Rachel even acknowledges at the novel’s conclusion that, though she will force herself to exhibit less timidity in her everyday affairs, her quirks and insecurities may never disappear.
Another issue I take with the idea of A Jest of God as a strictly developmental novel is that many of the barriers impeding Rachel’s development have very little do with her person at all. For instance, with regards to her family situation and subsequently her inability to finish her college education, these strictly economic factors were arguably outside of her control. Perhaps much of Rachel’s diminished life experience could be attributed to limited opportunity; obviously her employment opportunity is limited by her lack of a college education, but considering the time and place (rural Canada in the mid- 20th century) surely her gender must have played a role as well. Much of how she is perceived by others (and likewise how she perceives others as perceiving her) comes back to her status as a single woman in her mid- 30s, undoubtedly unusual given the setting. This is certainly not lost upon Rachel—numerous time she self- consciously calls out to Nick in her mind in the midst of her pregnancy/ cancer ordeal—and in his physical presence we often find her deriving much of her inner strength and confidence from his very presence; though such sentiments seem quite antiquated in this day in age, they would not have been so uncommon in Rachel’s time.
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John--the question here is what "development" in a novel really means. The very idea of the "bildungsroman" implies that a subject, intent in realizing his or her full potential (as he or she perceives it), comes up against obstacles that reign him or her in. In Rachel's case, these obstacles were there from the beginning--or at least after her father's death. Perhaps it's more suitable to call this a novel of "arrested development," then?
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