The Imagery of the Stone Angel :: Stone Angel

The Imagery of the Stone Angel In her novel, The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence successfully uses the statue of the stone angel to represent the Currie family pride, Hagars inability to relate and share her emotions, and the blindness and ignorance that results from refusing to consider any other point of view than your own.             The Stone angel is emblematical of the Currie family pride because it does not seem to serve its purpose, which is to honour Hagars mother who had died giving birth to her. Hagar describes Mrs. Currie to be a meek woman and a feeble apparition, whereas she describes herself to be stubborn and practical. The statue was bought in Italy and brought to the Manawaka cemetery at a terrible expense . . . in pride to mark her bones and proclaim his Mr. Curries dynasty, as he fancied, forever and a day (p. 3). Mr. Currie bought the angel in pride rather than in grief for someone he considdered his possesion, his dynasty. The stone angel is in addition a symbol of Hagars pride as she inherrited it from her father. It was this pride that kept her from speaking up and fighting for her brother when Mr. Currie sent her away to college to become more down. She knew Matt deserved to go more than her, but she never stuck up for either him or herself. In an attempt at freedom, or maybe comely to spite her father, Hagar married Bram Shipley soon after she came back from school. From day one, Hagars marriage to Bram was a complete embarrassment to her and her family When id listen to Bram spinning his cobwebs, then it would turn my domiciliate most of all, not what he said but that he made himself a laughingstock (p. 114). Upon hearing somewhat their plans to wed, Hagars father disowns her. Bram was not a blue man by any means, he drank heavily, always spoke in slang, and caused a scene on a regular basis. Hagar thought shed be sufficient to change him and coax him out of his wild ways, but whe n he proved her wrong, she just accepted the fact that shed have to live with it or lie about it to save face. When applies for a job to get away from Mananawka and her husband, she lies to her boss as to her real relationship with Bram.