Comparing Tale Of Morag And Manawaka

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Morag not only struggles with herself but also where she comes from. She does not have pride in who she is or her Manawaka past. Morag spends her life trying to forget her past or reinventing and reimagining it because she refuses to accept and value her inheritance. “I keep the snapshots not for what they show but for what is hidden in them.” (Laurence, 14) This represents the shame Morag has in her childhood and how she sees her past as a lie. Morag prefers imagined people that she creates, as well as the ones Christie does to real ones. She enjoys the idea of her ancestors being heroes, like Piper Gunn because, in her eyes, her family is an embarrassment. Most of her life she struggles with where she came from and cannot wait to be free …show more content…

She refuses to accept her hometown of Manawaka and the shame, resentment and failure she believes comes with it. She returns to the town many times throughout her life because it is the center of her self-denial. She needs to accept and deal with her past before she can move on from it, this is why she keeps returning to Manawaka. Morag learns a lot from Manawaka and the people in it, however, she does not realize this till much later in her life. She visits Manawaka again to attend her stepmother’s (Prin Logan) funeral. Morag experiences a deep sense of meaningless from this and once again Morag leaves Manawaka burdened with an undefined and indefinite past. She sees her life with Brooke in Toronto different light when she returns from Manawaka, she feels trapped in her life, like she did in Manawaka. “The apartment in Toronto seems more than ever like a desert island, or perhaps a cave, a well-lighted and beautifully appointed cave, but a cave just the same.” (Laurence, 275) Morag does not know what to do with herself, she has nothing to put her artistic passion into, this makes her feel useless and like life has no meaning. “She busies herself with this and that- goes out window-shopping, or to an art gallery or the museum. Seeing nothing.” (Laurence, 275) She has not defined herself as a writer and therefore feels loss and

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