THE STONE ANGEL- Margaret Laurence created a psychological delight when she developed Hagar Shipley. A motherless child, with a father, the epitome of a single dad, so uptight you could feel it on the page, a maiden aunt housekeeper, two brothers for competition and a small town. Lawrence didn't have to embellish her story with details and she didn't even have to encourage a plot. She gave us a character whose essence was palpable.

The title is actually the description of a large white marble statue of an angel--a sightless one--an eyeless one, which stands in the cemetary high above all others, sightlessly watching over its dead. It is the personification of PRIDE. Some readers say that Hagar Shipley was a prideful person, actually believing her to be an example of a woman of Beta Pride. In the world of psychology this indicates 'pride in behavior' which tends to be understood as a negative behavior. There is also an element of unconsciousess, a sense of detachment and a lack of genuine concern. There does seem to be that aspect of Hagar's personality. I have wondered if Lawrence worked the story backwards i.e. telling the tale of a feisty 90 year old and needing early years with just the right kind of disfunction to substantiate Hagar's personality. In today's vernacular H.S. is a woman with ATTITUDE! Gotta love her-my opinion! I haven't yet decided whether Hagar's life-theme was one of seeking/a quest for an elusive something or lived in the escape & revolt mode.

As a character & a story, I found 'fascination.' The classic strong woman can be quite attractive. But, after a re-read I believe that Hagar "made her own bed" as the saying goes. Her hard-headed, unmovable, stoic and yes, prideful personality got her through all of life's challenges but at the same time, created a rather ironic introversion. Many of her choices were the basis of eventual conflict in her life.

Because I admired & really liked Hagar, I made exceptions and excuses for her. In chapter #5 when Hagar, needing to escape the inevitible move to the nursing home pilfers her pension check and leaves unannounced, I found myself cheering. The escapade which follows is priceless! Hagar's redemption, her final introspection (perhaps her first), happens in chapter #10. I'm referring to the interaction with Mr. Troy, the clergyman. Lawrence created a magnificant opportunity which I found to be touching & wonderful & real. She had suggested that Mr. Troy sing and as he does something warms her heart & soul. Something finally "touches" Hagar. "Pride was my wilderness, the demon that led me there was fear. I was alone . . . " How grand that Hagar was allowed to experience joy--the sense of rejoicing before her life ends and how delightful that she also experienced her grandson Steven's visit.

Some have read The Stone Angel and been disturbed. I believe that this could be the feeling evoked in young readers, but I simply admired H.S., wanting to shake her at times and point out her pathetically self-defeating behavior. Margaret Laurence chose her and named her quite appropriately, and also gave us a title and an icon which reflect our heroine's actuality to perfection.

The quote I chose about Hagar is on page 303-304; “I hear my voice saying something, and it astounds me. ‘I’m—frightened. Marvin, I’m so frightened--’ …. What possessed me? I think it’s the first time in my life I’ve ever said such a thing. Shameful. Yet somehow it is a relief to speak it.”

I can’t really say why I chose this quote over many others except that it portrays her pride very well. Hagar is almost horrified that she has admitted to her son that she is afraid. Her whole life she had spent being strong, stronger than she needed to be perhaps. Her pride is what has gotten in the way of relationships and real love throughout her entire life. She feels ashamed at her “weakness,” but also relieved to finally relinquish her pride even that little bit.

For years she has lived with Marvin and Doris because she wasn’t fit to take care of herself anymore, and she has resented them for it. Hagar hates needing anybody; she is always in control and she takes care of herself. But in that moment when she tells Marvin she is afraid, she is admitting that needs someone after all. It unburdens her to actually accept her situation and let someone take care of her emotionally, even just for a minute or two.

Hagar’s character was profoundly interesting to me because she seemed so real and developed, but in the same way I found her depressing and frustrating because she refused to see the world through anyone else’s eyes. I think she was selfish and controlling to the last and it was a hard read in that sense. At the end she seems to repent a little, but I still don’t think she fully understood what had gone wrong in her life or why. I found the ending to be very unsatisfying. I guess it lacked the sense of closure I needed, but as a whole I enjoyed the book immensely.

Margaret Laurence does seem to capture the spirit of what I would consider to be the typical elderly lady in Hagar Shipley. That is quite the accomplishment since Hagar is 90 and Laurenece was in her mid-thirties when she wrote THE STONE ANGEL. Hagar seems very real, too real for my liking, especially since the reader is stuck with her throughout the first person narrative. At first I liked her, but as time went on I began to wish the book was written in the third person with more characters lurking around, so I could have a breather from her and her compalining about the condition of her bowels. Hagar's complelling because she's too real as a character.
My biggest problem with Hagar is that she has little interest in the outside world, she makes reference to reading the news paper on page 244 but she doesn't talk about reading anything else throughout the book and she never talks about anything positive in her life (which reminded me of Holden Caulfield). She doesn't give any detail to her years at college. Most of the men in her life, that she talks about treat her poorly. The one man that does treat her well barely gets any coverage, this is what she says about Mr. Oatley,
"Mr. Oatley died and left me ten thousand in his will. I bought a house. I had nothing better to do with the money then." Much like an old woman to dwell on the negative and never elaborate on the positive.

I was also impressed with Laurence’s ability to transcend age. She herself is a woman in her thirties, but the character, Hagar Shipley, is a woman of 90. I was impressed at how she was able to make this character so real. For the two summers that I lived at home during college, the summer after my first year and the summer after my second year, I worked as a private home caretaker. My job was to spend my days, and sometimes nights, at the homes of elderly people. These were people whose children, mostly, didn’t want to put their parents or relatives in nursing homes. They wanted their relatives to stay at home, and many times pass on at their homes. The character of Hagar Shipley is astonishingly similar to many of the people that I took care of. They constantly thought that their children or relatives were neglecting them and didn’t care about them or their belongings. They resented their dependency on me and their families. A passage from THE STONE ANGEL, early on in the novel, that really exemplifies this mentality comes from page 36 and reads,
“My shreds and remnants of the years are scattered through it [the house] visibly in lamps and vases, the needle-point fire bench, the heavy oak chair from the Shipley place, the china cabinet and walnut sideboard from my father’s house. There’d be no room for all of these in some cramped apartment. We’d have to put them into storage, or sell them. I don’t want that. I couldn’t leave them. If I am not somehow contained in them and in this house, something of all change caught and fixed here, eternal enough for my purposes, then I do not know where I am to be found at all.”
I find it very interesting and accurate that she ties herself to these objects, many elderly people do that, because they feel there is nothing left to tie themselves too. There is nothing besides these objects that exist, or rather existed during their youth. The people are long gone. I can see a distinct change between the young Hagar Shipley and the elderly Hagar Shipley. I think Laurence did a job job with character development.

Hagar Shipley is so compelling as a character because as readers we know more about her than she knows about herself. The way Laurence wrote the book has Hagar progressively learning more about herself through the past memories she dwells on coupled with the present narrative. The further one reads in the book, the more we simultaneously discover what Hagar begins to realize. This is a unique structure for reading the book because the reader feels as tough they are sitting across the table from Hagar having coffee and talking with her, learning the same lessons about life in that very moment.

Hagar is an authentic character because she admits that she cannot answer all of life's questions despite how much time she has lived. Laurence tries to show the reader that many of life's questions will remain unanswered. I find the level on insight that Laurence was able to prematurely provide in a character with such an age gap from herself. I question whether Laurence viewed the world as Hagar when she was her age (although Laurence only lived until age 61). It would be interesting to compare the discrepancies between her premature old age thoughts and the autor's actual thoughts at that time in her life.

Hagar develops from a stoical, hardhearted woman into a woman who comes to the revelation that she was had too much pride and was too scared to ever express her true feelings during her life and this has left her at a serious disadvantage. While she is talking to Mr. Troy in the hospital, Hagar admits to herself, "Pride was my wilderness, and the demon that led me there was fear. I was alone, never anything else, and never free, for I carried my chains within me, and they spread out from me and shackled all I touched" (292). This quote explains Hagar's detachment from her family and life in general throughout the book.

Laurence created this character, Hagar Shipley, is an extremely poignant woman who gets caught between her past and present struggles. As a reader, I found that I seemed to always be one step ahead of Hagar throughout her discoveries about her life and the way she has lived it, or not lived it. Hagar tells the reader the story of her life, and through these tales seems to come to realize that the qualities that maintained her are what eventually stole her happiness.

I believe that this is the kind of character of which Laurence wanted to create in the reader's mind; a character that was deprived of pleasure. One of her most memorable times of her life, college, is ironically a part in her life that Laurence 'skipped over.'

However, the most significant theme of the book was Hagar's relationships; more specifically, her relationship with her father. A harsh relationship, she often appeared to be resentful towards her upbringing, but in typical Hagar form, she also seems to admire her father through all of their strife. "I tried to shut my ears to it, and thought I had, yet years later, when I was rearing my two boys, I found myself saying the same words to them" (13). At this moment, for Hagar, she has possibly failed herself, but as the reader, we know that she has not. This quotation is so representative of the novel in its entirety: Hagar searching for herself and reminiscing on her past.

"'Oh, for mercy's sake let me hold it myself!'
I only defeat myself by not accepting her. I know this--I know it very well. But I can't help it--it's my nature. I'll drink from this glass, or spill it, just as I choose. I'll not countenance anyone else's holding it for me. And yet--if she were in my place, I'd think her daft, and push her hands away, certain I could hold it for her better." (308).

This passage comes at the very end of the novel when, after calling out for Doris to come help her with drinking from a glass of water--perhaps a sign that Hagar is accepting others' help--the narrator then proceeds to scold Doris for not helping her efficiently enough. The thoughts that come next are what I feel represent Laurence's intelligent writing. Hagar is a prime example of a stubborn old woman who knows what's best. What makes the novel so fascinating is that Laurence places this character in the context of someone who is up against everyone around her. Once we grow old, people begin to quesiton our ability to makes smart decisions--about anything. In the Stone Angel, Hagar must battle her family members, doctors, and a priest, along with battling her own demons. In the above passage, Hagar comes to terms with the fact that she will never change. She feels bad for what she said/how she reacted to Doris's helping her, but she concludes that no matter what, she knows best. She says so in the statement, "if she were in my place, I'd think her daft, and push her hands away, certain I could hold it for her better." Laurence couldn't have chosen a better character as the actual theme for her novel. Hagar is stone--she's not going anywhere--but as an angel she is also a lovely example of what will be lost; she stood as a loving matriarch--a role that is rarely questioned.

"They can dump me in a ten-acre field, for all I care, and not waste a single cent on a box of flowers, nor a single breath on prayers to ferry my soul, for I'll be dead as mackerel. Hard to imagine a world and I not in it. Will everything stop when I do? Stupid old baggage, who do you think you are? Hagar. There's no one like me in this world."

This quote embodied how I felt about Hagar Shipley by the end of the book. Although some of the events give Hagar substance to back up her demeanor, I think the reason that she is such a compelling character because we have all met a bitter old person who she reminds us of. I felt that Hagar was the summation of all of the bad characteristics of old people, and personally every time I envisioned her I was reminded of Mrs. Janikowski, the mean lady who lived at the end of my street and took it upon herself to yell at all the children on the street on how they could be better people.

I think saying, "There's no one like me in this world" accurately reflects the yearning to go back to a time period that has left them. Likewise, although Hagar devoted herself to other people in life, she is now alone on her deathbed. And, going along with the theme of pride, I think that this is also Hagar saying that she would rather leave this world in a box alone than change.

The character of Hagar Shipley really comes to life, for me, through her thoughts, arguements, and conversations throughout the book. As the pages pass, and Hagar divulges more into her life, her character continuously grows, as well as re-establishes itself. At times, you want to hate Hagar. She reminds me of the old women who used to come into my work and complain about everything; thats what old people seem to do-complain. Nothing you every did was right, and even if it was right, they still found someway to comment on it. But, if you could ever get past the complaints, and strike up a conversation, the bitterness was only skin-deep. There is always a reason behind a persons perception of the world, and of people around them. Sometimes, with regulars, I was able to get past the rudeness, and realize that maybe this person has a story, has a past; maybe there is far more to them as a person than just how they take their coffee or tea. I had this same reaction to Hagar. There is far more to her than meets the eye. The tone and voice in which Laurence portrays Hagar with really adds to the rooted truth behind Hagar, and allows you to develop a strong interest and bond to the character.

A favorite quote of mine is on page 254 (it's more of a small paragraph than a quote really);
"Lord, how the world has shrunk. Now it's only an enormous room, full of high white iron cots,each narrow, and in each one a female body of some sort.[...]I wonder. I just wonder. If I'd been someone with position, one of those silken dowagers with primped-up hair like you see on the society page, then they'd have found room quickly enough, I'd stake my life on that. [...] I'm like an exhibition in a museum. Any may sauter past and pause to peer at me. Admission free."

This passage from the text really sums up Hagar for me very well, as well as many older people whom I have encountered in my life. The world changes faster than we do. Some will deny this change, some will embrace it, and some will resent it. Throughout the book, Hagar's age comes into play on many accounts, expecially through her relationship with her son and daughter-in-law. They see her as old and senile. Maybe that's all the rest of the world sees her as. Maybe it doesn't matter what she does or says, that's just how it's going to be. She is a reminder of the past, an exhibit in a History museum. Amusing, maybe even interesting to look at, but what does she know? What does someone so old have to really offer? Well..I lot more than I imagined.

While reading The Stone Angel, I was impressed by Laurence's ability to portray an elderly character so convincingly. I cannot imagine writing from the point of view of an elderly woman, or even a middle-aged woman for that matter. Laurence was only middle-aged while she wrote this, and I think that her success in creating a convincing character demonstrates her skill as a writer. She doesn't rely on stereotypes of the elderly either in her writing. Hagar seemed like a real woman, dealing with the loss of the past, the difficulties of old age, and the reality of death. Her character highlights all the concerns of life we have, regardless of age. I think the best demonstration of Hagar's relationship to her life is when she says, "You're right. I never got used to a blessed thing," in response to Mrs. Steiner asking her if you ever get used to life.

i too was very impressed and convinced by laurence's character hagar. there was something that seemed so real about her, trapped in a withering body suffering from dementia, but still in her mind able to comprehend her world. this character really struck home with me, as my recently departed great grandmother was doomed to a nursing home for her final years. it was sad, because my family couldn't take care of her in the same way that hagar's couldn't, and she always seemed to hold some bitterness to the fact that she was sentenced to life in a home. like hagar she was a very independent woman before she was sent away, and being made to move from her own house to a nursing home was very hard for her to do. even though towards the end she appeared on the outside to be detached and enfeebled, there was still a sharpness about her that you could tell was still present. you could tell that she was aware of what was happening inside, but was unable to convey it coherently to others. that's why one of my favorite lines in the book which i think perfectly captures what it must be like to be trapped in such a way is on page 75: "I gather myself, my strength, my forces. I intend to speak with dignity. No reproaches, only a firm clear word. But that's not what I find myself saying."
this just seemed so real to me that it is almost scary. i dread to think that many years from now i may be subjected to the same torment of being trapped within my own body, a burden to my family (not saying my dear nana was a burden because she was sweet) and basically be treated like a child again. that to me seems like the worst part of being old. you are basically as helpless as a child again, except you aren't cute anymore which is why i think people are less tolerant of the elderly. if i were in hagar's position i definitely would smoke too. probably drink and maybe even pick up a drug habit as well. i only pray that if i get to be that old and my rotten family puts me in a home that i have the strength to escape. i also like to think my great grandmother at least entertained the idea of making a break for it.

The most fascinating aspect about the character Hagar i found to be her struggle with being old. I enjoy the way the novel is set up, switching back and forth between her as an old woman and then in her youth. I find it somewhat comforting when reading a novel to see the character in two different times in their life simultaneously. In other novels like this one i tend to like the character about the same in both their youth and old age but in this story i find myself more interested in Hagar as an old woman. She is very intriguing and reading about what's going though her head i found oddly touching. she makes herself out to be stone hard and bitter in her age, but really there is passion and warmth in her somewhere. The passage that really stood out to me was before you really got to know her character well and saw her weakness and vulnerability for the first time. It was right after she had risen from a chair. she was thinking about all her aching joint and knots in her legs. Her body was starting to fail her witch made every task more difficult. and then she feel. She immediately blamed it all on her daughter in law's over reaction to her stumble. But then we begin to see a little bit deeper into her struggle with her new self. she thinks "then, terribly, i perceive the tears, my own they must be although they have sprung so unbidden i feel they are like the incontinent wetness of the infirm. trickling, they taunt down my face. they are no tears of mine, in front of her. i dismiss them, blaspheme against them-- let them be gone but i have not spoken, and they are still there" (31). Hagar is almost yelling at her own body for crying. she is still trying to be tough, strong and untouchable, un-upset-able, but in her age she does have weaknesses and cannot come to terms with it. i feel a lot of sympathy for situations when people have to realize that things do change and time moves on. i feel like i've somewhat related this battle with time and aging with the fact that im almost a sr in college and (i will only write a short statement about thing because i hate talking about it but...) im struggling too with the idea of change.

this novel also reminding me a TON of a book i just read called Water For Elephants. it is a story of an old man in a nursing home and he is remembering his life working at a circus. he too struggles with the topic of growing old and lonely. its great and everyone should read it! its by Sarah Gruen.... AND OH MY GOODNESS PAUL!!!!... i just wikipedia-ed her AND SHES CANADIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! born in vancouver, raised in Ontario! Carleton University, Ottawa.... i dont know paul maybe you should add it to the book list for the class!

The Stone Angel really does a fantastic job capturing old age in the form of Hagar. This is interesting because Laurence herself was very young when she wrote the novel however, she seems to know exactly what it is like to be old. Throughout the novel Hagar reflects on her life and flashes back to her past and views these flashbacks from the present. Hagar seems to accept old age however, she rejects it at the same time and wants to continue to live as though she is a young and thriving woman, and I think that’s what makes Hagar so interesting to us because in a way we all fear getting old. Hagar throws away this old age however, she is still hampered by it. “He tugs and hoists under my armpits, and at last I rise, not on my own accord but lugged like lead… ‘This has got to stop’ he says” (32). This passage falls right after Hagar has fallen and injured herself. She is after all 90 and can be expected to fall from time to time. She however feels remorse over that, and who wouldn’t. but the thing that makes Hagar so interesting is her acceptance of her old age and at the same time her rejection of her age. She cannot be young and old at the same time however, if she could she would.

In response to the last paragraph of Allison M. Bryan's blog... you are insane.

But.....I agree.

I agree with Elizabeth A. that Hagar’s relationships were unusual and interesting, but I found them to be so because they were sort of anti-relationships. Elizabeth’s mention of Hagar’s father led me to retrace her relationships in general. Her relationship with her father has a limiting effect on her growth. He’s a man of the external world: all he ever teaches her are business tactics and the ways to count and weigh and measure physical items to be sold. Perhaps here we see the beginning of Hagar’s material identity. As Hagar’s identity develops in his house, which is one generally lacking other females or emotional tenderness, and thus is limited there by his pure association with the material world. Similarly, Hagar’s father can just cut her off entirely when she marries someone that he doesn’t approve of. Hagar doesn’t really see to object to this too much. She too can just cut off connections from people. (But not things. Even the memory of her mother is best exemplified by an object: her memorial stone.) She can just cut off the connections to her father and her husband. Hagar’s lack of intimate female relationships is interesting. It starts in childhood, with the loss of her mother. There are some other women in the novel, but the only one she seems to like is her granddaughter, with whom we never actually get to witness her interact. Maybe it’s this lack of female relationships that causes Hagar’s relative emotional disconnection. It’s also reflective of her embodying her father. Neither of them has a close female relationship after her death: “I only ever saw him speaking alone with a woman once, and that was by accident” (17).

Hagar Shipley’s character was most intriguing to me because of her likeness to my grandmother. Laurence’s use of the first-person narrative helps convince the audience of Hagar’s proud, stubborn and pragmatic character. It was so convincing in fact that it was a little hard to read because it reminded me so much of my grandmother’s own decision to live in a place with assisted living. It amazes me that Laurence could write such a tale at her age; usually we are the observers of old age.

The Stone Angel put these observations into precise action with Hagar’s character, strategically using the other characters, like her daughter-in-law, or the ardent religious man whom she has that nightly encounter with. With each secondary character we the reader are able to find more pieces to Hagar’s puzzle. It was poignant to me that, in the end, she realized her life struggle in the absence of remorse.
“How long have I known? Every good joy I might have held… all were forced to a standstill by some brake of proper appearances… proper to whom? When did I ever speak heart’s truth? Pride was my wilderness, and the demon that led me there was fear. I was alone, never anything else, and never free, for I carried my chains within me…” (Laurence, 292)

I also could respect the fact that Laurence didn’t have to put a name to Hagar’s illness. It makes the book more relateable but also not about the illness but about the adventure to the end. Hagar’s moments of delirium, too, felt like an appropriate illustration of how lost and confused one can be in old age.

“The lights are out and I am falling, through darkness as one does only in dreams… pit of hell might be similar to this…darkness flourishes here –a darkness absolute, not the color black...but the total absence of light. That’s hell all right….there are voices…but I have the feeling that only voices exist, only the vocal cords…the air is cool and stagnant…Perhaps when let I’m out, launched into wind and sun, I may disintegrate entirely.” (Laurence, 110/111)

Hagar as an old woman was a pretty sad sight. I had my first close experience with death a few years ago when my grandmother died. I spent some time with her as she was dying, and some of the ways she acted paralleled Hagar's character in this novel. Her character has a pretty pessimistic attitude, but I wonder whether I can blame her for this, considering her dismal situation.

"Lord, how the world has shrunk. Now it's only one enormous room, full of high white iron cots, each narrow, and in each one a female body of some sort. I didn't want a public ward, but Marvin said the doctor told him there was no room anywhere else. I wonder. I just wonder. If I'd been someone with position, one of those silken dowagers with primped-up hair like you see on the society page, then they'd have found room quickly enough..." p. 254

It doesn't seem like a nice place to be. That is clear. But I have a hard time sympathizing with her when she loses the ability to see any light in her life. There is always something worth smiling about, and I struggled with her attitude because it reminded me of my grandmothers death and how similarly she acted towards the end of her life. I don't understand why anyone would want to die mad or upset with their situation. I know I'm going to try as hard as I can to be happy when I die. Hagar has a difficult time separating herself from comparisons with others like the people on the "society page" which might have received better treatment in the hospital. Her character made me upset. I wished she would stop being so negative.

“In a place where everyone knows everyone else, “ I said to him that night, “ you have to avoid not only evil but the appearance of evil.” Pg 283

“We saw, with a kind of horror that could not be avoided, however much one looked away or scurried on, that some of the eggs had been fertile and had hatched din the sun. The chicks, feeble, foodless, bloodied and mutilated, prisoned by the weight of broken shells all around them, were trying to crawl like little worms, their half mouths opened uselessly among the garbage. I could only gawk and retch… for pity’s sake they were put out of their misery, or so I believed then, and still in part believe. But they were an affront to the eyes, as well. I am less certain than I was that she did it entirely for their sake. I am not sorry now that I did not speed them.” Pg 27-28

“I give a sideways glance at the mirror and see a puffed face purpled with veins as though someone had scribbled over the skin with an indelible pencil. The skin itself is the silverish white of the creatures one fancies must live under the sea where the sun never reaches. Below the eyes the shadows bloom as though two soft black petals had been stuck there the hair which should by rights be black is yellowed white like damask stored too long in a damp basement” Pg 79

I found one of the most interesting aspects of Hagar’s character to be her obsession with appearances and her changing perception of them as she ages. In her youth, Hagar is obsessed with her appearance to her society. This probably developed from her father, who raised her with an understanding that one’s appearance in society defines who they are and what kind of person they will be remembered as. He also instills in her an idea that a person is only accomplished if they are useful and contributive to their society Hagar claims that she is unconcerned with appearance or concerns of her society and marries Bram Shipley to prove it. Unfortunately her marriage to Bram was more about trying to change his appearance to be what she deemed socially acceptable then about love and accepting him for who he is. When she realizes that he will never fit the mold of what her society has deemed as proper, she hides away not going to church or into town to avoid the shame of being associated so publicly with someone who appears so uncouth and uneducated. She believes that because she rejects this side of Bram she is not associated with it, and finally leaves him in order to reestablish her image in society.
I chose these three quotations to illuminate Hagar’s changing perception of appearance and usefulness in society. The first quotation is something she says to Jon for associating with the Tonnerre boys. She tries to pick and choose whom Jon hangs out with thinking him better than other children and “above” hanging out with certain individuals who by all appearances are undesirable. It expresses her exact view on the importance of maintaining appearances and folding to societal standards. She not only sees impropriety as improper, but even if one appears so and is not. The second quotation is an excerpt from the story about Lottie killing the birds. She uses the words “feeble, foodless, bloodied, and mutilated” to describe the birds. Because she deems their existence to be “feeble foodless, and bloodied” she sees it as good reason why their death is acceptable. She furthers this reasoning by saying that they are “an affront to the eyes” basically denoting that they should be killed not only because they are weak and unable to survive on their own but also because they are offensive to even look at and no one should have to look at such pitiful creatures.
The third quotation I chose because I think it draws a parallel to the second. Hagar is no longer a beautiful young woman. Like anyone who ages, she has lost many of the qualities that humans deem attractive. She describes her features as if they were that of a sea monster, hideous and unfathomable to look at. She is looked down upon as an old crabby woman who has little use and is more of a burden. Perhaps, this is why she no longer views appearance and people’s perception of it the same way. She sometimes still gets caught up in appearing properly and positively but merely out of habit. When looking back at the incident with the birds, It seems that she identifies with the creatures which had their life ended so quickly and with no choice of their own. Like them, she is now doomed to whatever fate others decide for her because she no longer has the capabilities to contribute. She is now “feeble, foodless, and mutilated” and resents her situation but recognizes that her condition does not mean that she should loose control over choices in her life, much less be deemed undeserving of life at all. Although the importance of appearance plagues Hager her entire life, she is unable to really recognize the foolishness of worrying about it until her life is nearly over.