The Stone Angel
Quotes and Study Guide
Chapter 9
(page 249) “Things never look the same from the outside as they do from the inside”
Hagar should have realized this years ago. Who cares what people on the outside say? What should matter is what is going on on the inside. Hagar realized this too late.
(page 252) “i know, I know you really couldn't help it – it wasn't your fault. But these are not the words that come”
Hagar's stubbornness – she can't offer Lees the forgiveness that he offered her. Note that Lees lies to Marvin earlier in the chapter – he says that he was walking home and heard Hagar crying out. Lees is hiding his own issues.
(page 253) “I didn't mean to speak crossly. I-I'm sorry about your boy”
Hagar has a moment of self-realization. She offers Lees the only absolution she can give. We see Hagar has changed – she realizes that she has spoken crossly and makes some attempt to repair the damage.
(page 256) “. . .and the voices flutter like birds caught inside a building”
goes back to the seagull incident and what Hagar said at that time – a bird in the house is a death in the house. This foreshadows Hagar's oncoming death.
(page 263) “Tact was never his strong suit”
an ironic observation of Marvin. Tact has never been Hagar's strong suit, either. She still cannot see that Marvin is like her in many ways. She still believes that Marvin was Bram's boy, through and through.
(page 264) “Why is it always so hard to find the proper one to blame? Why do I always want to find the one? As though it really helped”
Hagar having another moment of self-realization. She's realized that blaming people, herself included, for what has happened in her life would do no one any good, especially at this point in her life. Finding the 'proper' one to blame has been hard for her because she has always blamed everyone but her self, and she is unwilling to take the blame now that she is dying.
(page 272) “you farmed , you said . . .a handsome man”
Hagar feels pride that this stranger assumed she was a farmer – this is something that the younger Hagar would have been enraged and angered by. Hagar (perhaps) has realized that appearances mean nothing. Her observation of Bram here is significant. She doesn't say anything negative about him or who he was, she focuses only on what she liked about him, his appearance and his strength.
(page 275) “Bram!”
Hagar calls out for Bram in her sleep. This is a small yet significant insight into her character and her true feelings just prior to her death.
1