Stone Angel

Thesis statement

Compromises have to be made in relationships of love and matters in order to cope up with the situations.

Background

In Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel, Hagar Shipley, the protagonist refused to compromise, will determine the outcome of his life and the lives of those around her. "dignity was my wilds and the demon that led me was the fear of ... [I] never free, because I carried my chains within me, and they spread out from me and shackled all I touched. (Laurence, 292). Hagar pride and stubbornness were the reasons for her failed relationships and lack of love in his life. Her excessive pride destroyed her relationship with her father, brother and husband. It furthermore led to the death of her son John. Her persistence led to her marriage to dissolve, Marvin to be unhappy, her daughter-in desperation right, and her own death.

The overwhelming pride, Hagar was because she could not talk about their love or affection for those around her. She inherited her pride from her father and from an early age she has always refused to show emotion because she was too proud to see one of its weaknesses. Her father know that she was "spine" (p.10) and that "it took him" (p.10). The first sigh of excessive pride, Hagar was shown when her father scolded her for talking to the client that there were errors in the barrel of raisins. She refused to cry before and after the sentence: "I would not let him see me cry, I was in a rage" (p. 9). She went on to build a wall around himself to hide his emotions. Her pride prevented many people in my life. When her brother Dan died, her other brother, Matt asked her to wear a headscarf and her mother's claim to ...