The Stone Angel | The Stone Angel

At a glance:

Author: Margaret Laurence
First Published: 1964
Type of Work: Novel
Type of Plot: Psychological realism
Time of Work: The mid-1870’s to the early 1960’s
Setting: Vancouver, British Columbia, and a town on the Canadian prairie
Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Bildungsroman, Family literature
Subjects: Family or family life, Self-discovery, Memory, Mothers, Parents and children, Alienation, Guilt, Class consciousness, Emotions, Mental illness, Death or dying, Canada or Canadians, Small-town life, Old age or elderly people, Pretensions
Locales: British Columbia, Canada, Vancouver, Canada

Hagar Shipley, née Currie, the protagonist, a ninety-year-old woman. She has become too much of a burden to her son and his wife, and even a hazard—bored at the age of eighty, she took up smoking. Daily matters make her aware of her aging body. Her mind is prompted by objects or sounds, such as those in her room or at the doctor’s office, to recall episodes of her life filled with her enormous pride and inwardness. As a girl, her shopkeeper father drills her about her Scottish heritage and sends her to an Ontario girls’ finishing school. She then...

The Stone Angel | The Stone Angel

At a glance:

Characters Discussed

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