Women and Self-Discovery
As scholar Sumathy Swamy articulates, "Laurence's Manawaka novels The Stone Angel (1964), A Jest of God (1966), The Fire Dwellers (1969), and The Diviners (1974)...[have] given remarkable portraits of women fighting with their personal determination through self-assessment to find significant prototypes in their lives. Her characters, in the opening of the novels, might be victims but by the end they refuse to become victimized."[10] Swamy goes onto describe that Laurence's main character, Morag, "searches for her identity as a woman, mother and writer and as an individual in a community."[10] For example, Morag learns about her sexual identity, realizing that "in lovemaking...touch is significantly more meaningful for Morag than sight and speech."[11]
Race and Post-Colonialism
Robert D. Chambers writes that "Morag dares to love across racial lines, and it may be this aspect, rather than anything else, which has made The Diviners so controversial within Canada."[12] Morag is a white-Canadian, while her lover, and Pique's father, is Métis. Neil ten Kortenaar claims that The Diviners is a post-colonial novel, two possible reasons being that "it is a rejection of England and English literature in favour of a native tradition based on orality; and it is a celebration of creolization, the blending of different cultures in an indigenous mix."[13] When Morag and Jules unite and Morag gives birth to Pique, the result "is a child who carries in her veins the blood of both settlers and indigenes. Pique Tonnerre Gunn's inheritance is cultural as well as genetic. Her mother passes on to her the stories of both sides of the racial divide."
Language Redefined
Christl Verduyn argues that "The Diviners comprises a movement 'against language.' By probing words' meanings, and by devices such as the use of 'memory bank movies' and photographs, Laurence includes an interrogation of language and of writing itself. This allows the novel to question itself as a 'formed/formal language.' In this way, The Diviners participates in the critical examination of literature and language carries out in recent years by feminist literary theory."[11] For Verdyun, language in this novel is "a source and vehicle of contradiction."[11] For example, Christie's misuse of language aims to expose "social inauthenticity and counterfeit language" and Morag is both "attracted to and at the same time would like to reject his particular diction."[11]
