The Significance of the Stone Angel
Hillary Sayers Sayers 1
ENG 3U
Mrs. DeLorenzi
May 9, 2010
The Stone Angel: Significance of the Title The Stone Angel, published in 1964, is one of Margaret Laurence’s best known novels. Throughout the novel, Laurence reveals how life was in Western Canada during the 1930’s. In The Stone Angel, the ninety-year-old protagonist reflects on her life attempting to understand herself. During the recollection of her past, the audience discovers that Hagar had a rough life as she had to endure the loss of many family members. Her mother died giving birth to her and had an expensive stone angel bought for her grave. Throughout her self-realization she learns that she is in fact the stone angel. Hagar’s lack of emotion, her blindness, and her pride are all qualities she shares with the stone angel. Even as a young child, Hagar reveals that she fails to express her emotions several times. She believed that showing emotion was a sign of weakness. Looking back on the past, Hagar realizes her first scenario with lack of emotion was at the age of six. Hagar resembled her father in many ways opposed to her brothers who inherited their mother’s frailty. When Hagar embarrasses her father in his store he whips her hands and she refuses to cry. Mr. Currie proclaims that she takes after him and that she has a backbone. Another encounter with the difficulty of expressing emotion is when her brother, Dan, was dying of pneumonia. While showing off for the girls, Dan skated right into one of the holes where they cut a block of ice and when his fever went up, the doctor was out Sayers 2 of town. Matt thought the only solution was for Hagar to cradle him while wearing their mother’s shawl in attempt to comfort him. Although, Hagar wanted to help her brother, she could not bring herself to imitate the frailty of the women who died giving birth to her (Aubrey, 319). But all I could think of was that meek woman I’d never seen, the woman Dan was said to
ENG 3U
Mrs. DeLorenzi
May 9, 2010
The Stone Angel: Significance of the Title The Stone Angel, published in 1964, is one of Margaret Laurence’s best known novels. Throughout the novel, Laurence reveals how life was in Western Canada during the 1930’s. In The Stone Angel, the ninety-year-old protagonist reflects on her life attempting to understand herself. During the recollection of her past, the audience discovers that Hagar had a rough life as she had to endure the loss of many family members. Her mother died giving birth to her and had an expensive stone angel bought for her grave. Throughout her self-realization she learns that she is in fact the stone angel. Hagar’s lack of emotion, her blindness, and her pride are all qualities she shares with the stone angel. Even as a young child, Hagar reveals that she fails to express her emotions several times. She believed that showing emotion was a sign of weakness. Looking back on the past, Hagar realizes her first scenario with lack of emotion was at the age of six. Hagar resembled her father in many ways opposed to her brothers who inherited their mother’s frailty. When Hagar embarrasses her father in his store he whips her hands and she refuses to cry. Mr. Currie proclaims that she takes after him and that she has a backbone. Another encounter with the difficulty of expressing emotion is when her brother, Dan, was dying of pneumonia. While showing off for the girls, Dan skated right into one of the holes where they cut a block of ice and when his fever went up, the doctor was out Sayers 2 of town. Matt thought the only solution was for Hagar to cradle him while wearing their mother’s shawl in attempt to comfort him. Although, Hagar wanted to help her brother, she could not bring herself to imitate the frailty of the women who died giving birth to her (Aubrey, 319). But all I could think of was that meek woman I’d never seen, the woman Dan was said to
Cited: Aubrey Bryan. “The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence”. Novels For Students (2001). Ed. Elizabeth Thomason. Vol. 11. Detroit: Gale, 2001. 319, 325. Laurence, Margaret. “The Stone Angel”. (1964). Toronto: McClelland & Stuart Ltd, 2004. Rooke, Constance. “Hagar’s Old Age: The Stone Angel as Vollendugsroman”. Crossing the River. Ed. Kristjana Gunnars. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1988. 35. Thomas, Clara. “The Stone Angel”. Margaret Laurence (1969). Ed. W. David Godfrey. Toronto: McClelland & Stuart Ltd, 1969. 43.