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1''The Diviners'' was a novel by Creator/MargaretLaurence, released in 1974. Not to be confused with the 2012 [[Literature/TheDiviners2012 novel of the same name]].
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5!!Some tropes appearing in the novel include:
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7* AbusiveParents
8* BraveScot : Piper Gunn, in the childhood tales Christie tells wee Morag.
9* ChubbyMamaSkinnyPapa : Prin and Christie, respectively.
10* DisappearedDad : [[spoiler: Jules]]. He only visits a few times throughout Pique's life, though he carries a picture of her.
11* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion : Both a subversion and a straight version of the trope. Morag's friend aborts her pregnancy with a coat hanger. Christie takes the fetus to the Nuisance Grounds, to be buried--and it's not the first time he's done it, in his job as the town garbage man. The friend grows up to marry a local farmer, but because she can't have children, is considered "ruined" by the procedure. The experience affects Morag so strongly she writes a similar scene in her first novel (StoryWithinAStory). The details of the character and the scene are not fleshed out, although the character is a [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold stripper]].
12* HookerWithAHeartOfGold : The StoryWithinAStory Morag writes has one of these, dismissed (using the exact words) by a critic as being cliché.
13* MostWritersAreWriters : Morag becomes a freelance writer. Somewhat subverted, in that her life is realistically unglamourous, and she often has to take other jobs (cleaning lady, book store clerk) to pay the bills.
14* OrphansOrdeal : Morag's parents die of some illness (probably scarlet fever) when she is only five and a friend of her father's takes her in. Not as rough as some examples of the trope, but a difficult childhood.
15* PlotDeviceAllAlong : The kilt pin. The knife also appears in ''Literature/TheStoneAngel'', loosely tying the two novels together.
16* SuicideIsPainless: [[spoiler: Jules Tonnere]], after he becomes ill with throat cancer. Doubly tragic, considering the author's later death.
17* WarIsHell: Christie is a World War I veteran and suffers a vague sort of PTSD. That and his lack of education are the reason he doesn't have much ambition beyond the town garbage man.
18* WellDoneDadGuy: Morag, to Christie, in the hospital. "Well, I'm blessed."

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