The Stone Angel

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 (27 . In this statement it is shown with what great magnitude Hagar cares of how others perceive her . In her vanity she states , Oh , I was the one , all right , tossing my black mane contemptuously , yet never certain the young men had noticed . I knew my mind , no doubt , but the mind changed every minute , one

instant feeling d with what I knew and who I was and where I lived , the next instant consigning the brick house to perdition . (39 . Hagar finds a demonic comfort in her pride , a place where she is familiar , and yet still further she gives her feelings , 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 (261 . So , even though she knew how far pride would cause her to fall , she reveled in it , despite the chains she speaks of , and the redemption she seeks later in life , she enjoyed her prideful self , though it set her sincerely in despondency Even while Hagar is in her redemptive state in the novel , she is still persistent in her vanity , still `shackled ' to it , as can be seen in the lines , Oh , I am unchangeable , unregenerate . I go on speaking in the same way , always , and the same touchiness rises within me at the slightest thing (262 . It seems she finds it very difficult to change , to mutate , to differentiate between redemption and simply confession . In a...