Rachel And Her Outside World

Who was she? Sometimes she was a child skipping rope. Sometimes she was a woman with a passionate hunger. And one day the woman and the child came together...

This is the tagline of the movie Rachel, Rachel. While the movie does stray from the book, my interpretation of this particular “coming-of-age“ was focused more on the reconciliation between Rachel’s exterior world and her interior world.

Toward the beginning of A Jest of God, there was a moment that struck me as odd. I spent the entire novel with this moment in the back of my mind, waiting for it to resolve itself (or at least address itself). When I had finished the story, I could see that it was indeed addressed, but instead of being direct, it took the slow and winding route.

Willard was visiting Rachel in her classroom after school and said jokingly, “That’s an enigmatic smile, Rachel. Is it the Sphinx or the Mona Lisa?” Her interior monologue is as follows: His humour. I didn’t know I was smiling. If I was, it was only out of nervousness. She replied, “I didn’t know I was smiling.”

How is it that an educated person with plenty of time on her hands would not catch a joke like that? We know that Rachel spent a good deal of her life bored and dissatisfied with her life, her town, and everyone around her. We also know that she is a daydreamer. And yet she clearly hadn’t seen a picture of two of the most famous works in the world, the Sphinx or the Mona Lisa.

Most people who are escapists tend to bury themselves in some kind of other world, be it books, music, or art. (At least this is the cliche.) Then, when said character has reached a point to forfeit longing and instead embark on his own adventure, he not only has a physical destination in mind, but a mental, emotional, and/or a spiritual one as well.

Rachel's time and attention were devoted to obsessing over those around her. Rather than rising above that and taking an interest in something outside of her immediate world, she was caught floundering in a net of self-pity and worry. In Rachel, Rachel, there is a point where Calla ridicules Rachel for always choosing vanilla ice cream. She says, "There are thirty other flavors and a flavor of the month. There are more people in this world than just you." However, in the story, Calla (nor any other guiding light) tells Rachel this--instead, she has to figure it out for herself.

It is really interesting that Laurence chose to develop a character that was not a typical escapist. As far as the outside world was concerned, Rachel didn’t know what she was heading toward, yet she chose to embrace that. She resolved to make her life her own and participate in the world around her. In a way, Rachel didn’t move from point A to point B. At age 35, Rachel had arrived at Point A.