The Great Life Of Margaret Laurence
While researching about Margaret Laurence I found lots of information I didn’t know about. Her life was very interesting and I’m so glad I got to know about her. My goal in this paper is to know a lot more than I knew before about Laurence.Margaret wrote books and always played in movies. She was a Canadian novelist and story writer. Margaret had over 10 books that she not only wrote herself. She was founded by writers’ Trust of Canada. She was born on July 18, 1926, in Neepawa, Manitoba. In my report about Margaret, I am going to stating important information about her and her life.
Growing up as Margaret she didn’t really have anybody to look up to her mother died when she was four years of age and her father died four years later. She started writing stories and poetry at the age of seven years of age. She attended United College in Winnipeg. She graduated in 1947 with an Honors in English and went on to work as a reporter for Winnipeg Citizen. As well though she got married to Jack Laurence that same year. Their first child together went by the name of Jocelyn Laurence, she was born in 1952. Their second child went by the name of David Laurence, he was born in 1955. Margaret and Jack Laurence were great as parents. Margaret won The Governor General’s Award for English-language fiction in 1966 and 1674. Her stories feature strong women and their struggles for self-understanding .
The Laurence’s family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1957. In Vancouver, they joined a church The Unitarian Church.They lived happily for a while but then Margaret left Vancouver with her two children.Margaret and Jack divorced in 1969. She and her children moved to England where they settled in Elm Cottage in Penn Buckinghamshire. After arriving in England she wrote Wiseman.
During the seven years of staying in England, her children grew into adults. The jest of God which received the Governor General’s Award was the basis for a movie, Rachel, Rachel in 1966. Continued with The Diviners 1974, the narrators of the earlier stories reappear in this final Manawaka novel, emphasizing their unity as a set. Laurence won her second Governor General’s Award for The Diviners.
While still living in England Laurence established a summer home in Southern Ontario, which she named Manawaka Cottage. Her returns to Canada became a year around. She made her home in Lakefield, Ontario. In 1976, she began attending the Lakefield United Church. She had been comfortable with Unitrain n belief (or lack of it) she did not feel in the Unitarian heritage the raw power of the image of the crucifixion, which she thought expressed the suffering of humanity, and of women in particular.
Her decision is based on the difficulties she has with balancing roles as wife, mother, and writer. Between 1963 and 1966, Laurence writes four novels. During this period Laurence begins her celebrated Manawaka series with The Stone Angel and A Jest of God. The Stone Angel is hailed a major work of Canadian literature and the most stunning achievement of Laurence’s career. It is the story of Hagar, an elderly woman who must negotiate the choices of her past in order to find peace.
The late 1970s and early 1980s are an exceptionally difficult time for Laurence. In addition to depression and an increasing dependence on alcohol, she is subjected to public attacks on her books. Fundamentalist Christians deem The Diviners “blasphemous” and “obscene” and pressure school boards to ban her novels. Several schools comply. Although Laurence is privately anguished, she stays silent. But after another round of censorship in the early 1980s.
Margaret Laurence was a very nice lady . She was an actress , an novelist , an mother , and an wife . No matter the issue she made sure she lied her dream up . She made lots of books and she played in lots of movies . Seven of the eight stories of A Bird in the House were published from 1962 . With the addition of an eighth, they were gathered together and published in 1970.The deaths of her own parents, the changes caused first by loss and grief . She thinks of herself as commonplace and ordinary, but Laurence’s great achievement is to reveal to us her extraordinary qualities of love, fortitude and vitality.
On Jan. 5, 1987, after months of coping with advanced lung cancer, Margaret Laurence takes her life. She is only 60. The news and media report that Laurence died of cancer. Only her family and a few close friends know the truth. From the time of her diagnosis in August 1986 to her decision to take her life in December, Laurence had been keeping a journal. In her journal, Laurence reflects on her deteriorating health. The loss of privacy and independence and the prospect of becoming a burden to family and friends are too much for Laurence to bear. She hopes that her decision to end her life will be met with forgiveness and understanding. The facts of Laurence’s death are made public in July 1997, with the release of James King’s biography, The Life of Margaret.