Dual Consciousness
In her stories set in Africa, especially, many characters view the events which occur through a dual consciousness that mostly results from conflicting geographies. Characters born in England bring their British worldview to Africa and often, in the common vernacular, “go native.” Or, alternatively, do the opposite and insist on treating Africa society like it is British society. Some characters, however, are born in Africa, but spend enough time away in England that upon coming back, their dual consciousness is further corrupted by no longer being quite “as African” as they used to be, yet at the time are certainly not British, either.
What is most remarkable, perhaps, is how Laurence brings this same sense of a double-consciousness to stories set entirely in Canada in her collection “A Bird in the House.” These are stories about a younger Vanessa Macleod narrator from a distance by a middle-aged Vanessa with the result becoming a portrait of a single character sharing two different consciousnesses that, even more strikingly, do not always perfectly sync up. “The Voices of Adamo” and “The Merchant of Heaven” are two other stories which approach this theme from idiosyncratic angles.
Marginalization, Isolation, and Alienation
The characters that populate the short fiction of Laurence are not exactly leading lifestyles of the rich and the famous. Although a great many populate the center of social strata, even these people are impacted by the isolation of being far away from their homeland or the alienation of being an outsider among an alien culture. Godman, a dwarf locked in a box for the purposes of being exploited by his “master” is the central symbolic figure of the marginalization in Laurence’s short stories, but he is merely the representative of the extreme conditions which a great many more characters face to one degree or another. The beauty salon owners of “The Perfume Sea” may occupy the middle of the spectrum while Vanessa Macleod herself is an example marginalization at its seemingly least obstructive, but even her middle-class class isolation and alienation is nothing to dismiss simply because it is easier to relate to than a dwarf in a box.
Self-Identity
One of the dominant themes connecting all of Laurence’s stories together is the desperate desire to establish a firm sense of self-identity. This theme forms the underlying foundation of all the stories narrated by Vanessa in the collection titled A Bird in the House. In looking backward at her youth from the perspective of that girl’s future, the narrator is essentially trying to piece together what her life means. Godman’s story of escape from the exploitation of his master that denies not just his identity, but his humanity, once again takes front and center as the most extreme realization of this them. The ironic center of this theme is to be found in the titular tribesman at the center of story “The Voices of Adamo” which also occupies a central station in the Laurence’s status as a writer of post-colonialist fiction.
