Jean Margaret Laurence was a Canadian fiction writer known for her short stories and captivating novels. She usually wrote about the life of African and Canadian people. The major qualities of her work reflect the life and the social world. In The Fire-Dwellers, the major character, Stacey MacAindra, is a very strong person, mother of four children, a doer, who is critical to the expected behavioral norms. In her story, Laurence uses common places and everyday aspects of the social scene to reflect life. She effectively uses the allegory of the symptomatic medicines to show dull and predictable life in ordinary experiences. The characters suffer from self-doubt, search for love, attempts to make changes, and in the end achieve a small degree of success. The meeting with Valentine Tonnerre helps to underline that, regardless of the events, some people still can resist situations to find occasional joy and beauty in everyday life.
Before the meeting with Valentine Tonnerre, Stacey thinks that her problems are something she cannot cope with. She tries to resist and not to accept the ideas of being an ideal mother and wife as everybody expects, “Okay, so I’m trying to justify myself. Earlier, I was worried sick in case that kid was one of mine. Now, look. Why? What if I hit one of them too hard sometime, without meaning to? Am I monster?” (Laurence 20)
Stacey is ready to fight and combine social expectations with her preferences. However, everything changes after Stacey meet Valentine Tonnerre walking in downtown Vancouver. Now, Stacey’s situation does not appear to be so frustrating and pitiful to her. Her expectations are less confusing in comparison to Valentine’s, which is all about poverty, alcoholism, and prostitution. Even more, Stacey feels responsible for the situation with Valentine. She cannot but think about her heritage in this town. The shock that grows after a talk with Valentine makes her think about the inviolable process of life, the increasingly violent and superficial world, its injustice, and firmness. Valentine also identifies Vernon Winkler for her so that Stacey comprehends the role of money and class inequality that determines the exclusivity of life.
This meeting plays a very significant role in Stacey’s life. It helps to underline the existing isolation and inequality: “I’m overdoing it and she will know. I don’t want to have coffee with her. Even her presence is a reproach to me” (Laurence 241). Laurence pays enough attention to this issue. The problem of racial inequality turns out to be extremely important for the main character. The social interactions with Valentine Tonnerre arise out of many complex networks. Along with Stacey’s self-doubt, physical needs, and dreams, she tries to navigate a coherent course. At the beginning of the story, she was bothered with her appearance and age: “Four kids have altered me. The stretch marks look like silver worms in parallel processions across my belly and things. My breasts aren’t bad, and at least my ankles aren’t thick” (Laurence 21). After the meeting with Valentine Tonnerre, her thoughts are far from those she had before: “And a reproach for the sins of my fathers, maybe. The debts are inherent and how could the damage ever be undone or forgiven?” (Laurence 241). Such changes are caused by multiple reasons, and the meeting with Valentine Tonnerre is one of them.
However, the problem of race and inequality is not the only thing that bothers Stacey MacAindra. She tries to be a good mother and wife. Unfortunately, the ignorance on the part of her husband depresses her. She faces more troubles and misunderstandings when her husband starts dealing with Richalife productions.
Mac, Stacey’s husband, changes jobs from time to time. His instability with employment and his home life creates confusion and a sense of drifting out of control for Stacey. He always spent too much time outside and did not pay the necessary attention to his family and his wife in particular. Mac obtains a new job. This time, it is selling new vitamins. He truly hopes that this occupation will bring him more money and even prosperity. “Richalife – Not Just Vitamins – A New Concept – A New Way of Life. With testimonials. Both Spirit and Flesh Altered. Richness Is a Quality of Living.” (Laurence 34). This job brings Mac not only money but also popularity and a kind of satisfaction. Motivational seminars and cocktails parties – this is what his life is all about now. Stacey cannot understand the passion of her husband and secretly goes to one of those Richalife cocktail parties. She is astonished by the events that take place.
Thor Thorlakson plays a role of a priest. He proves that Richalife vitamins will help people enter a new world, the Earthly Paradise, where people will wear silver vestments and unbelievable suits. These Richalife vitamins are no more than a new drug of the century with unrealistic expectations. In other words, Richalife is asymptomatic medicine that helps people become a member of the society Stacey lives in. Unfortunately, Stacey is one of those people who refuse to partake in this drug. Stacey thinks that it is “a load of crap” (Laurence 234). She cannot agree with the fact that her husband sacrifices their family for the life in the era of After Richalife. She has her personal preferences and ideas and does not want to join the world where the words and ideas of one person have unbelievable power over others. The apotheosis of the priest’s speech was the suggestion for all people to enter a new era – After Richalife.
The book The Fire-Dwellers is quite educative and interesting indeed. It helps many people, women, in particular, to analyze their own lives, to validate their experience, as Laurence did, and to escape from it. The story described by Jean Laurence touches upon various issues, such as race and gender inequality, and a view unto the real world of prairie life. No matter how misguided those voices and their inherent perception may often be, Laurence, insists on their value. The reader gets a great opportunity to analyze what happens in the major character’s mind and opens a view into another life. For Laurence, the past shapes the way one sees the world.
The idea of “voice” and “rights” is also perfectly described in the novel. Stacey MacAindra is not the only character who discloses this idea. Valentine Tonnerre, Delores Appleton, and Stacey’s sister may also serve as good examples. Of course, their style of life, moral principles, and the necessities of life are quite different. This is what allows the reader to analyze the issues of rights and freedom from different perspectives.
In conclusion, it is necessary to add that The Fire-Dwellers is a wonderful story about a woman, wife, sister, and mother who truly believes that life can offer much more than daily routine and might-have-been dreams. Meeting with Valentine Tonnerre and her husband’s new job with Richalife became two turning points in Stacey’s life. Richalife vitamins are the tickets to a new life that Stacey cannot comprehend and accept. Stacey fights with this society and the style of life propagated by Richalife and achieves the desirable victory using accepting this society on her conditions.
Works Cited
Laurence, Jean Margaret. The Fire-Dwellers. United States: University of Chicago Press, 1993.