The Stone Angel By Margaret Laurence Essays - Abraham, Lech-Lecha

The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence is a heart-warming story of a ninety year old woman who is nearing death and who has very little to look back on with pride. Her life had been ruled by her concern of outward appearances and manners. Although she often felt love and happiness, she refused to show it fearing it may be viewed by others as a weakness. Hagar inherited this strong pride from her father, Jason Currie, along with other poor qualities. Throughout her life, Hagar is desperately trying to escape. First, she tries to escape from her family, mostly her father, but in so doing she also cuts herself off from her brother, Matt. She also ends up leaving her husband, Brampton. Secondly, Hagar tries to escape from her own poor qualities to which she is captive; attempting to fill the emptiness within her. Finally and futilely, she tries to escape death. All of these attempts fail dismally. Throughout the narration of the novel many images are put forth repetitiously to aid the development of Hagar's character and the main themes. The Stone Angel is a very effective story due largely to the biblical, water, and flower imagery. The biblical imagery is very strong and can be found numerous times throughout the novel. The name of the main character, Hagar, is also the name of a hand maid in a biblical story. Many parallels are made between Margaret Laurence's Hagar and the biblical Hagar. The Hagar in the bible was to conceive a son with the husband of her owner, Sarah, who, herself, was unable to conceive. Hagar did bear a son but Sarah became very jealous of Hagar and had her thrown out into the wilderness. Hagar's son was born and they both returned to the place where Sarah and her husband, Abraham (Laurence's husband to Hagar was named Brampton to echo Abraham), lived. Hagar and her son were cast into the wilderness once again when Sarah bore a son of her own and Hagar's son, Ishmael, mocked Sarah's child. Nearing death, Hagar and her son were saved by God who provided them with a well of water. The Hagar in The Stone Angel is very similar to the Hagar in the bible. Laurence's Hagar became a housekeeper to Bram after she married him, which is ironic for a woman with her qualities. Hagar realizes this and sees herself as a bondwoman (this is also how the biblical Hagar is described); therefore, she feels trapped like a prisoner. Hagar says, "I was alone, never anything else, and never free, for I carried my chains within me," (pg. 261) thus showing Hagar as a captive of her position, emotions, and her pride. The two Hagars are also very similar in that they both go into the wilderness. Hagar Shipley goes out into the wilderness when she leaves her father to marry Bram and live on his farm. The difference between the two Hagars if that Hagar Shipley is not confronted by a divine manifestation like the Egyptian Hagar. Hagar's vision and realization comes when she and her favored son, John, leave home. Hagar slowly begins to see John's true character. Hagar Shipley wished her son was like Jacob, a faithful son in the Old Testament; however, she soon realized that he was not like Jacob. When Hagar returned to Manawaka, the statue of the stone angel had been pushed over and she requested that her son, John, fix it. Hagar says, "I wish he could have looked like Jacob then, wrestling with the angel and besting it, wringing a blessing from it with his might. But no." (pg. 159). Hagar's second journey into the wilderness was when she fled to Shadow Point. Here, Hagar realized that her other son, Marvin, was her Jacob and that she had favored the wrong son. The Hagar in the Old Testament bore a wild son, Ishmael, but she also created a faithful son, Jacob (descendent of Isaac). The parallels between The Stone Angel and the biblical Hagar are so strong that the effectiveness of Margaret Laurence's work rises dramatically. The water imagery presented many times in the novel helped to develop the theme of death. As everyone knows, water is viewed as the center of life since, without it, life would cease to exist. An example of this is when the drought occurred in Manawaka. Hagar returned during the drought to find all of the Shipley's flowers and vegetables dead. "They'd had no water this year,"

Is Human Cloning Acceptable In Todays Society Essays - Biology

Is Human Cloning Acceptable In Today's Society Essays - Biology Is Human Cloning Acceptable In Today's Society Is Human Cloning Acceptable in Todays Society? Imagine a twelve-year-old girl that has been diagnosed with an illness that will be fatal in the next ten years. This disease targets the heart and slowly deteriorates the myocardium of the heart. The twelve-year-old girl is placed behind fifty people on a list for a heart transplant. For that little girl, there seems to be no faith to which she can depend on for her heart transplant. What options does this girl have besides waiting for a heart transplant or waiting to die? Now, imagine a set of parents who are about to have a baby that was cloned from the father. The parents went for a regular check-up with their doctor and found out that their child was going to be physically retarded due to the cloning of the child. The parents are devastated and outraged that the cloning did not turn out successfully. Unfortunately, the responsibility of raising a physically retarded child has been put into their hands. Would this type of genetic altering be acceptable in todays society? How can cloning a person be ethical if the risks of retardation come into play? These two scenarios draw just a few of the questions that scientists and people all over the world are faced with as human cloning is introduced to the world. In the past few years, many people all over the world have read about the cloned sheep called Dolly. Dolly has been one of the most talked about experiments in the twentieth century. When the concept of cloning emerged, the possibilities that could emerge from it floated in the minds of scientists all around the world. Could we really create an exact copy of any living thing by altering the DNA of the particular organism? To many people, the possibilities are endless but to others, it seems like one of the biggest mistakes that man may have stumbled on throughout our entire human existence. In an article in the The Sunday Times written by Steven Connor and Deborah Cadbury, the issue of human cloning is addressed in a positive way. Scientists have created an embryo of a frog without a head, raising the prospect of engineering headless human clones which could be used to grow organs and tissues for transplant surgery. This type of engineering could bring many answers to questions and problems concerning organ transplanting. With any organ transplant, the patient is required to stay on drugs, which lower the immune system in order to keep the transplanted organ from rejecting its recipient. By using the method that scientists predict will soon be available, the recipient would have no problem accepting the newly transplanted organ. With any type of cloning, the issue of ethical behavior arises. Researchers believe that because without a brain or central nervous system the organ sacs may not meet the technical definition of an embryo. In order to produce the headless frogs, scientists have to pinpoint a certain gene and alter that gene. Fortunately, the frogs could be applied to human embryos because the same genes perform similar functions in both frogs and humans (1A). In Scotland, scientists are trying to create a genetically altered cloned pig that can produce harvestable pig organs that the human body will not reject (Better 19). The cloning of pigs could one day benefit humans but in order to insure success, the headless human clone would be the guaranteed project. This type of cloning could save hundreds of people everyday but it is a question of whether its acceptable or not to the public. In an article from The Atlanta Constitution by Jeff Nesmith, scientists are trying to reach a decision on whether human cloning should be legal and how best to prevent it. The article stresses the importance of how human cloning should not be allowed for the use of parents to clone themselves. At a cloning forum sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, participants grappled about ethical and moral issues raised by the unexpected appearance of Scotlands cloned sheep, Dolly. At the forum, the total consensus was directly pointed at making the procedure illegal for human cloning. The real question