Spring Imagery
Laurence uses detailed language to describe the rural landscape at the beginning of spring, with poplar bluffs budding with "sticky leaves" and applying personification to describe the frogs, who sing like "choruses of angels with sore throats" (50). She also uses alliteration in this section, such as the "shavings of sun," "marsh marigolds," and "black-topped buggy," evoking a sense of beauty and the new marriage of Bram and Hagar.
Biblical Imagery
Biblical imagery can be found throughout the text. Many of the characters, including Hagar herself, have names taken out of the Bible. Hagar's name came from a Biblical character who was the slave of a woman named Sarah, who gave her to Abraham to father children. The union produced only one son, Ishmael, who was eventually banished along with Hagar. Like the Hagar of the Bible, Margaret Laurence's Hagar leaves the only home she has ever known with little except her son and the clothes on her back.
Hagar's favorite son, John, is the younger of the two. He literally wrestles a stone angel, much like the Biblical character Jacob is said to have wrestled with an angel. Like John, the Biblical character Jacob was a second son whose mother, Rebekah, loved him better than she loved her firstborn, Esau. Whereas Rebekah conspired to get the boys' dying father, Isaac, to bless Jacob instead of Esau, Hagar preferred John and took him with her when she left Bram. Like Esau, Hagar sold her inheritance—the items her mother left her, which she sacrificed to raise the money to leave.
Hospital Imagery
The Stone Angel is excellent at expressing the unpleasantness of growing old or ill and being placed in a hospital. While in the public ward, Hagar is trapped in her own bodily discomfort, with the sense of "pain beating its wings" against her rib cage. The lack of true privacy only intensifies her situation as she cannot easily fall asleep, instead listening to the medley of snoring and rasping, or hearing someone "neigh a little, with whatever pain or discomfort is their particular portion" (256).
Food Imagery
Hagar describes the assortment of delectable food prepared by her daughter-in-law Doris, detailing the "lemon slice with browned coconut on top" and the real butter she has opted for instead of "disgusting margarine" (34). This rich display is enjoyed by Hagar but simultaneously indicates to her that something strange is afoot: Doris and Marvin are trying to please Hagar so that she is more inclined to consent to go to the nursing home.
