A Summation of Pride-Related Occurrences in The Stone Angel :: Stone Angel

A Summation of Pride-Related Occurrences in The Stone Angel  Margaret Laurences The Stone Angel is one of the most acclaimed Canadian novels of all time. In this novel, the most preponderating theme is that of pride this is seen predominantly through the protagonist, Hagar, but also through other characters, such as Jason Currie. As John Moss states, What gives Margaret Laurences vision the resonant dimensions of universal joint truth is theinterlacing of the destructive and constructive effects of (Hagars) recalcitrant pridePride is a double-edged sword. Indeed, her great pride helps her to cope with the many difficulties she faces passim her life. This pride, however, also separates inclination and response (J. Moss), resulting in several strained relationships which Hagar was unable to mend. John Moss believes that Hagars pride repeatedly imprisoned her within the confines of thwarted affections and misdirected emotion. more than specifically, her pride caused such things as an unhappy marriage with Brampton Shipley and a severance of all ties with her father, Jason, and her brother, Matt. Her pride serves her best in her dying days, when she will not invoke to frailty and deferential concern. She rages against the dying of the light with the same wrong-headed spleen that she had always displayedin the counterpointed present herpride is heroic (J. Moss). Definition of Pride Pride n. 1. Inordinate self-pride high opinion of ones own importance or worth conceit. 2. arrogance haughtiness. 3. honorable self-respect personal dignity. 4. smug pleasure taken in the supremacy of oneself or another. 5. a person or thing in which one takes such pleasure. Analysis of the Theme of Pride via a Short Summation of Pride-Related Occurrences The primary reference to pride is in the second sentence of the novel Hagar describes the Stone Angel as my mothers angel that my father bought in pride to mark her bone and proclaim his dynasty (3). Hagars father was a v ery proud man, a trait that was passed on to his daughter, and he takes great pride in this terribly expensive statue, which had been brought from Italy and was sheer white marble (3). Hagar recollects exhibiting her pride as early as age 6 when she says There was I, strutting the board sidewalk like a pint-sized peacock, resplendent, haughty, hoity-toity, Jason Curries dark-haired daughter (6). Jason Currie was a self-made man who had pulled himself up by his bootstraps (7).