A Jest of  God

Margaret Laurence charter Rachel Cameron (main charter) was a very interesting woman: at the age of thirty-four Rachel is one who struggles with life during the time of the great depression. Still living with her mother (May Cameron) in a stultifying Manitoba town in the upstairs flat of the Japonica Funeral Chapel. The building used to belong to Rachel’s fathers, and was called Cameron’s Funeral Parlour after her father’s death her mother and her needed money, so they sold the building. The man that bought Rachel’s father’s building had no planes for the flat upstairs, so he aloud Rachel and her mother to pay rent for it .Rachel also struggles with her father’s death which happened years ago. Rachel is a second grad teacher in the small town. She works very hard at her job. She tends to struggle the rules and laws that the school has in place. Rachel tends to get emotionally attach to her students and finds it very hard to stay professional in front of them. She refers to her students as “her children”. Rachel then struggles with her love life. Her mother has made it her mission to keep Rachel living with her. Rachel then 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. Rachel becomes very frightened with strong emotions that she runs out of 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 and not married. At the last moment, Rachel decides she wants to live, she then goes to the doctor and Dr. Raven tells her she actually has a tumor and she is not pregnant at all. 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 out of her life.
After finding that she isn't pregnant and after she has gotten pass Nick, Rachel gains a new perspective on life and reevaluates her life. Eventually Rachel moves from her mother's grasp and travels to B.C with her older sister.