The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence is a heart-warming story of a
ninety year old woman who is nearing death and who has very little to look
back on with pride. Her life had been ruled by her concern of outward
appearances and manners. Although she often felt love and happiness, she
refused to show it fearing it may be viewed by others as a weakness. Hagar
inherited this strong pride from her father, Jason Currie, along with other
poor qualities. Throughout her life, Hagar is desperately trying to escape.
First, she tries to escape from her family, mostly her father, but in so
doing she also cuts herself off from her brother, Matt. She also ends up
leaving her husband, Brampton. Secondly, Hagar tries to escape from her
own poor qualities to which she is captive; attempting to fill the
emptiness within her. Finally and futilely, she tries to escape death. All
of these attempts fail dismally. Throughout the narration of the novel many
images are put forth repetitiously to aid the development of Hagar's
character and the main themes. The Stone Angel is a very effective story
due largely to the biblical, water, and flower imagery.
The biblical imagery is very strong and can be found numerous times
throughout the novel. The name of the main character, Hagar, is also the
name of a hand maid in a biblical story. Many parallels are made between
Margaret Laurence's Hagar and the biblical Hagar. The Hagar in the bible
was to conceive a son with...
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...agery (such as mirror imagery) which also helps to
develop Margaret Laurence's story; however, it wasn't personally seen as
powerful as the ones discussed. All the imagery throughout the novel helps
the themes, characters, or plot to be more effective. The biblical imagery
aids the development of Hagar's character and the plot. The water imagery
helps to establish the theme of death and to attempt the impossible -
escape from death. The flower imagery showed the way Hagar lived her life
and the way she should have lived her life. Margaret Laurence is brilliant
in her use of imagery to further propel the strength of her story. Without
this outstanding application of imagery, the novel The Stone Angel would
not be nearly as powerful as portrayed.
The killer angels is a world acclaimed novel that was written by an author known as Michael Shaara. In the year 1975, it was granted the Pulitzer Prize for creative writing. It gives us in details the occurrences of the four days in the Battle of Gettysburg. This was during the American Civil War that occurred in the year 1863. At this time, troops that comprised of both the Union and Confederacy were at war in town called Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. This is a piece of story that is driven by disposition and narrated from the point of view of various heroes (Hartwig, 1996).
On December 10, 1950, in Stockholm, Sweden, one of the greatest literary minds of the twentieth century, William Faulkner, presented his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize. If one reads in between the lines of this acceptance speech, they can detect a certain message – more of a cry or plead – aimed directly to adolescent authors and writers, and that message is to be the voice of your own generation; write about things with true importance. This also means that authors should include heart, soul, spirit, and raw, truthful emotion into their writing. “Love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice” (Faulkner) should all be frequently embraced – it is the duty of authors to do so. If these young and adolescent authors ignore this message and duty, the already endangered state of literature will continue to diminish until its unfortunate extinction.
She’s just so weak. If she would stand up for herself, no one would bother her. It’s her own fault that people pick on her, she needs to toughen up. “Shape of a Girl” by Joan MacLeod, introduces us to a group of girls trying to “fit in” in their own culture, “school.” This story goes into detail about what girls will do to feel accepted and powerful, and the way they deal with everyday occurrences in their “world.” Most of the story is through the eyes of one particular character, we learn about her inner struggles and how she deals with her own morals. This story uses verisimilitude, and irony to help us understand the strife of children just wanting to fit in and feel normal in schools today.
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Have you ever wondered what life would be like in the Civil War? What soldiers went through? How they dealt with wounds and the medicine? Many of which lead to death because medicine was not advanced as it is now. Medicine has come a long way, since the days of the Civil War. In the book, The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara, explains the life and how it went for people in the war. There are 3 people: Robert E. Lee, John Buford, and Buster Kilrain. These 3 characters faced medical problems and with very little medicine specialties it was very difficult for their health.
Perhaps no other event in modern history has left us so perplexed and dumbfounded than the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, an entire population was simply robbed of their existence. In “Our Secret,” Susan Griffin tries to explain what could possibly lead an individual to execute such inhumane acts to a large group of people. She delves into Heinrich Himmler’s life and investigates all the events leading up to him joining the Nazi party. In“Panopticism,” Michel Foucault argues that modern society has been shaped by disciplinary mechanisms deriving from the plague as well as Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a structure with a tower in the middle meant for surveillance. Susan Griffin tries to explain what happened in Germany through Himmler’s childhood while Foucault better explains these events by describing how society as a whole operates.
Through attention to detail, repeated comparison, shifting tone, and dialogue that gives the characters an opportunity to voice their feelings, Elizabeth Gaskell creates a divide between the poor working class and the rich higher class in Mary Barton. Gaskell places emphasis on the differences that separate both classes by describing the lavish, comfortable, and extravagant life that the wealthy enjoy and compares it to the impoverished and miserable life that the poor have to survive through. Though Gaskell displays the inequality that is present between both social classes, she also shows that there are similarities between them. The tone and diction change halfway through the novel to highlight the factors that unify the poor and rich. In the beginning of the story John Barton exclaims that, “The rich know nothing of the trials of the poor…” (11), showing that besides the amount of material possessions that one owns, what divides the two social classes is ability to feel and experience hardship. John Barton views those of the upper class as cold individuals incapable of experiencing pain and sorrow. Gaskell, however proves Barton wrong and demonstrates that though there are various differences that divide the two social classes, they are unified through their ability to feel emotions and to go through times of hardship. Gaskell’s novel reveals the problematic tension between the two social classes, but also offers a solution to this problem in the form of communication, which would allow both sides to speak of their concerns and worries as well as eliminate misunderstandings.
Alexander Stowe is a twin, his brother is Aaron Stowe. Alex is an Unwanted, Aaron is a Wanted, and their parents are Necessaries. Alex is creative in a world where you can’t even see the entire sky, and military is the dream job for everyone and anyone. He should have been eliminated, just like all the unwanteds should have been. He instead comes upon Artimè, where he trains as a magical warrior- after a while. When he was still in basic training, and his friends were not, he got upset, he wants to be the leader, the one everyone looks up to.
Nine patriarchs found a town. Four women flee a life. Only one paradise is attained. Toni Morrison's novel Paradise revolves around the concept of "paradise," and those who believe they have it and those who actually do. Morrison uses a town and a former convent, each with its own religious center, to tell her tale about finding solace in an oppressive world. Whether fleeing inter- and intra-racial conflict or emotional hurt, the characters travel a path of self-isolation and eventual redemption. In her novel Paradise, Toni Morrison uses the town of Ruby and four broken women to demonstrate how "paradise" can not be achieved through isolation, but rather only through understanding and acceptance.
Photography provides us with an easy way of capturing the world around us. In our today’s society photographs are taken by almost anyone with access to a cellphone, and are able to turn any moment into a physical object. These still images of our world are passed along almost instantly though the help of social media, messaging, and in person sharing. Our whole culture is in some way or another is affected by the photos we take and what they convey.
The novel God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane is an account of the strike Senegalese trainworkers underwent in pursuit of equal benefits and compensation from their French employers. In an effort to coerce the workers into returning to their jobs, the French cut off the water and food supply to the three villages wherein these events transpire: Thies, Dakar, and Bamako. Ousmane's novel explores the way in which these hardships evolve the worker's and their families till the strike is ultimately resolved. Arguably the most significant transformation that takes place is in the role of women within these societies. Prior to the strike, the women were expected to be subservient to their husband, with exclusively domestic roles consisting of cooking, cleaning, and caring for the children. As a result of the strike and the famine that accompanied it, the women were forced to alter their role to provide food for their families. The goals of the men in women differed in that the men were fighting for equality and better pay, whereas the women were fighting a battle for their own and their children's survival. So despite the fact that the declaration of strike and refusal to work until their demands were met was the campaign of the men, it was the women who ultimately forced the Frenchmen to see their resolve and succumb to their demands.
As we continue with our life journey, we find the past typically integrates with the present. In the novel "The Diviners" by Margret Laurence, the protagonist, Morag, ventures through her journey of self-discovery. Throughout her pilgrimage, Morag's conflicts with herself and society as a whole bring out the fundamental principle of her character: her perseverance. Although there were other external factors that had an effect, Morag's unconquerable will was built primarily by her experiences in her childhood, adulthood, and ancestral past.
A symbol is a literary device used by the author to portray an idea to the reader. In Margaret Laurence's, The Stone Angel, the stone angel is a symbol used to heighten the reader's understanding of the characteristics of Hagar Shipley. First, the stone angel is used to show Hagar's pride in the Currie family name. She prizes the stone angel because it is expensive and imported from Italy to honour a mother Hagar never knew. Similarly, the stone angel is symbolic of Hagar's inability to show emotions; like the angel, Hagar is hard and cold. Lastly, the angel is symbolic of Hagar's blindness, just as the angel; Hagar is doubly blind. The symbolism of the stone angel is first apparent in Hagar's pride in the Currie family name.
Hagar prides herself on never showing weakness to everyone or anything in her life. All of Hagar life she never realizes that her pride pushes and hurts people in her life,