Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel Essay

Marg aret Laurences The endocarp backer is a invention, which depicts the expiry days of life story of the protagonist Hagar Currie-Shipley. overcharge, loneliness and lowest journey to conclusion are the principal(prenominal) themes of the novel.  The calibre of Hagar is transformed through and through the novel and the readers dejection see distinguishable stages this old char comes in her perception of other people, life and death. Multiple flashbacks give us root word about the life of the main character and people who surround her. Margaret Laurence goes nevertheless than mere description of events. Deep investigation of Hagars be lie downfs, thoughts and ideas present not only a valuable investigation of old ladys inner world, but similarly thrust the readers to reflect on such important themes as love, friendship, pride, acceptance of death and coming in foothold with ones reality.Margaret Laurence wrote in one of her interviews that she was not undi sputable if the rifle days of ninety-year old woman could be an interesting reading for the child corresponding audience. But she dared and fulfilled her idea and the novel became popular among the readers. It was included into some(prenominal)(prenominal) study courses soon after it was published. The subject touched in the novel echoed in the hearts of the readers and they were ready to share an recognize of dying woman and reflect on the themes of pride and loneliness.Pride is the best characteristic of the main character. All Hagars life is dedicated to one ultimate use she wants to make a practiced appearance by both means. some(prenominal) manifestations of emotions she regards as weakness, which should be avoided by either means. The name of the novel set outs a symbol for this pride, which makes the main purpose of Hagars life. From proto(prenominal) age she feels ranking(a) to other children. An mishap on the Manawak underprice is re tout ensembley character istics for better taking into custody of Hagars character.When Hagars friend Lottie killes sm all told chicks in the Manawak dump Hagar becomes largely impressed by this accident. This accident made such a great impression on Hagar that she was not able to forget about it during all her life. Many years later she retold this accident to Lottie after the death of their children. This accident had such an impression on Hagar not only because of her extra sensitiveness. For her putting to death birds became manifestation of strength. This strength was manifested by her shy friend.As Hagar herself describes her Lottie was light as an eggshell herself, and I felt surly toward her littleness and pale picturesque hair, for I was tall and sturdy and dark and would have comparabled to be the opposite (Laurence,. 27). Comparing herself to Lottie Hagar suddenly came to realization that she was weaker than slim and shy girl she disdained. This accident became one of the turning points in t he becoming of Hagars temperament and shaped out all her further life. An accident in the Manawak dump made Hagar obsessed with pride and thirst to keep a high-priced appearance in front of people by any mean. Pride became sense of life and she was ready to sacrifice everything to this ideal. She did not make any exceptions, even for her well(p)est people.Being unnerved to become weak, she even refuses to piss being her mother when her dying brother asks her about this. She refuses to do so because she believes her mother was a weak per male child and Hagar is afraid even to ready being weak. Pride does not let Hagar to accept the choice of her son to marry Lotties daughter. She sees their relations as a joke of beau ideal if people had told me forty years ago my son would fall for No-Name Lottie Driesers daughter, Id have laughed in their faces (Laurence, 204). She boldly takes Gods challenges and decides to destroy their relationships. For this purposes she even turns to Lotties help. Hagar is stubborn and self-assured enough to make the decisions for other people and their future.She does not take nips of other people poorly and even happiness of her own son does not count in comparison to her own ambitions. She does not hesitate even for a subtile when making a decision to destroy Johns and Arlenes relationship. Hagar forgets her own youth when she did not listen to anybody and married the man she had fall in love with. I saw them with a covey of young, same(p) Jesss had been, clustered resembling fish spawn, children with running noses and drooping, handed-down pant four sizes too large. I couldnt face the thought. (Laurence, 211) She is absolutely sure in her right and power to decide the destinies of other people and such spatial relation ultimately results in a tragedy. Pride and aesthetic feeling become main reasons, which define all Hagars behavior.Obsession with the immenseness of appearance becomes a reason, which destructs Hagars life. This concern about appearance prevented her from enjoying physiologic love with the husband. Inner rules and restrictions did not let her to forget about moral philosophy and appearance even for a minute. Doing her best to keep a computable appearance she does not even cry on the funerals of her beloved son. final stage is another important theme of the novel. All Hagars life becomes a constant battle with death. Since early years she denies death and destructions and since these very early times they follow her step by step. Feeling an approach of death, Hagar tries to nonpayment this reality and looks for the mean to deceive death. In the beginning she turns to memories and recollects the pictures from her past. Childhood memories, spousal relationship and children, all these memories help Hagar to create her own reality where there is no place for death. She throw out not even tolerate thoughts about death.In her reflections she states Hard to imagine a world and I n ot in it. Will everything stop when I do? Stupid old baggage, who do you think you are? Hagar. Theres no one else like me in this world (Laurence, 255). Such a position reflects selfish attitude and pride. Hagar can not believe that the world can exist without her.  When Hagar realizes that she can not escape from reality any more aggression and desire to change something replaces all other feelings. Hagar rejects help of other people and tries to appointment death. She can hardly control her feelings and anger becomes a mean to elicit her protest against the existing order of the world. The realization become difficult because death is that phenomenon, which Hagar tried to escape by any means since early childhood.From the very moment when Lottie killed chicks Hagar did not want to confess even to herself that death was a natural part of the world. She rejects any kind of help and digs Marvins take in charge to put her in the nursing home as a humiliation. unaccompanied af ter long period of inner fight Hagar at long last comes in terms with the reality. Acceptance of the world around her becomes bran-new experience for Hagar. She finally comes to hard realizations that her will and proud can not control everything in the world and there are things she has to perceive as they are, not attempting to alter them. Ability to see different sides of the problem also becomes new experience for Hagar. As she states, how you see a thing it depends which side of the fence youre on (Laurence, p. 224)May be for the first time in her life Hagar realizes that there are other people around her and these people also have feelings, thoughts and emotions. Such simple conclusion becomes a very dependable breakthrough for this strong and proud woman who used to control everything and everybody during all her life. Hagar finally starts counting with the will of other people. She does several(prenominal) mercy deeds, which are done not because of some aesthetic value or in the attempt to make a good appearance. Hagar helps ill girl who can not get up. Later she talks to her son and tells him she loves him more than John, who died in the car accident. These actions require enormous amount of Hagars inner force. innocent acts of mercy are so new to her that she can not perceive them as something normal, like most of the people do. This transformation becomes the greatest action for Hagar.She lies to Marvin in the name of love. This lie is very vividly apposed to her proud refusal to lie for the sake of her dying brother many years ago. All these changes become a vivid indicator of big transformation, which happens to Hagar during the last days of her life. She finally realizes that there are things, which are more important than pride and good appearance, which have determined all her previous life. Such things as compassion, friendship and love for the first time uncover their true meaning for Hagar. The power uses the death to show the change in the perspective of the main character and to let the reader follow the person who leaves this world.From the other side new realization does not change her proud and independent nature. Hagar is still afraid and feels lonely, but she does not fight her destiny and the whole world any more. She makes her final decision to leave the world being proud and independent, like she has spent her whole life. In the last scene Hagar, dying, rejects the help of the deem to help her drink some water. She does it herself and this usual action which we do several times a day becomes an exploit for dying woman and proves her independency and power of her spirit.Margaret Laurence has chosen a difficult topic for her novel. She depicted the last days of the old woman left alone in her world, skirt by the memories of the past and lonely in her voluntary isolation. The author describes different stages Hagar passed before her death and analyses her emotional conditions during these stages. But w e meet death several times during the novel. We see in the memories of Hagar who lost almost all her dear people but didnt think about the death like about something which could happen to her. The death is described without embellishments and exaggerations. But ordinary and fashion descriptions help to get better understanding of the death and, finally, of life.Works Cited1. Margaret Laurence, The Stone Angel, New Canadian Library, Toronto, 1968.