Talk:A Jest of God

Untitled

Rachel Cameron(the main character) lives with her mother (May Cameron) in Manitoba in time of the Depression. She is not married and works as a school teacher. She feels isolated because she is almost 35 with no prospects of getting married and she feels trapped by her overbearing mother who seems to have made it her mission to keep Rachel living with her. Rachel meets Nick and they begin a relationship that is almost entirely based on sex. Rachel feels liberated by Nick but she still does not tell her mother much about him, because she knows her mother will disapprove. On one occasion, Rachel visits a Pentecostal church with her friend Calla and ends up speaking in tongues. She becomes very frightened and runs from the church. Rachel continues seeing Nick and later discovers that she has missed her period. She believes she is pregnant and decides to kill herself because she is fearful of what her mother will think and how the society she lives in will react to her being pregnant out of wedlock. At the last moment, Rachel decides she wants to live and tosses the pills she planned on taking out the window. She goes to the doctor and Dr. Raven tells her she actually has a tumor and she is NOT pregnant. She tells Nick, but he lies to her and says he's married. Rachel talks to his parents who tell him that Nick has never been married and so with this she cuts him from her life. After finding that she isn't pregnant and after she has cut Nick out, Rachel gains a new perspective on life and reevaluates her life. Eventually Rachel liberates herself from her mother's grasp and moves to B.C with her older sister.