Margaret Laurence The Loons Themes

Jessica Cribb
Mrs. Keatings
ENG3UO-E
December. 3rd, 2014

The Loons Margaret Laurence is one of many Canadian authors who incorporate real life events into her stories. The Loons, written by Margaret Laurence, deals with the theme that people have trouble with themselves, who they are, and who they want to be. Jean Margaret (Peggy) Wemyss (before she got married), was only four years old when her mother, Verna Jean passed away. This unfortunate event not only affected her, but her family too. A few years later Margaret’s father, Robert Wemyss, got remarried to her deceased mother’s sister, Margaret Campbell Simpson. At the age of nine, Margaret’s father passed away which made the nine year olds life much tougher than any nine year olds life

This is possibly a social influence that may have caused Margaret to write such a story because she lost her mother too. What is not so similar is the fact that Piquette’s father, Lazarus, was rarely in the picture, whereas Margaret and her father were close; in personality and in character. Because Piquette had no one to help her, she had to take the role of the caregiver or the ‘mother’ because her father was barely there and was not reliable. “[…] Piquette cooks for them, and she says Lazarus would never do anything for himself as long as she’s there” (Laurence 2). Another social Influence is that Margaret and Piquette both have male figures in their lives other than their fathers. Margaret has always had her grandfather and after Piquette got sick, she had Vanessa’s father, who was the doctor that cared for her. “Your dad was the only person in Manawaka that ever done anything good to me” (Laurence 9), she says to Vanessa after her father passed away. Also, another example of a social influence is when Vanessa never cared for the loons that were at the cottage until after they had left and her father had passed away. After Margaret’s father passed away, she says, “I hated him for a long time, even after his death. Now I have a kind of respect and admiration for him” (uudb.org). Having lived life without her father for years, Margaret learned to admire him, just like in the story where Vanessa begins to admire the