Morag Gunn's Values

Morag Gunn's Values

Throughout Margaret Laurence’s novel "The Diviners" the character of Morag Gunn experiences values which are ever evolving from her childhood until she reaches old age.   As we read the novel it becomes apparent that Morag learns from the values of those whom she is in contact with for a prolonged period of time.   Because of Morag’s tendency to learn from the values of others and then move on, she experiences many changes in her value systems, and personality during her entire life.
The first major change in value systems for Morag Gunn occurred when she was a child.   Morag was the only child of a relatively well off family that lived in Manawaka.   During this time Morag was instilled with values that represented those of the higher class citizens in Manawaka.   Morag’s lifestyle then took a drastic change when both of her parents died.   Morag was then taken in by Christie and Prin Logan.   Christie and Prin had no children of their own, and were not very well off.   Christie, who had saved Morag’s biological father in World War One, was the keeper of the town dump, and Prin was a housewife.   Christie was the person who was responsible for instilling a value system in Morag from her childhood, until she moved out of Manawaka to attend University.   Christie didn’t consider etiquette, and proper manners to have much merit in life, and chose to instill Morag with the values of self worth, self esteem, and a belief that he holds dear, which is not to conform to what society believes is appropriate, but to be your self at all times.   "…The ones who have to wrap the rye bottles in old newspapers and try to hide the fact that there are so goddamn many of them.   The ones who have fourteen million pill bottles the week, now.   The one’s who will be chucking out the family albums the moment the grandmother goes to her ancestors…"   With this quote Christie is trying to demonstrate to Morag that everyone in Manawaka has different sets of values, and just because Morag’s values...