ce'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," says Hagar, not yet realizing that she, too, has lived most of her life in a drought. The water she was deprived of was that of a wild and free spirit that could express itself without restraint. Hagar experiences an actual lack of water when she goes on her sojourn at Shadow Point. She had gone shopping on the way to her destination and had forgotten to buy water. "I've not had a drop of water since - I can't remember how long it's been. A long time... Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink. That's my predicament," (pg. 166) thinks Hagar. This had always been Hagar's predicament; life always surrounded her but she could never have a taste of what life really meant. Hagar's inner feelings and emotions had been dying of thirst all her life and now she feared she might physically die of thirst. After being found at Shadow Point, she was brought to a hospital where she was to die. As she lay in her death bed she requests a glass of water to quench her thirst and says as her daughter-in-law tries to help her, "I only defeat myself by not accepting her. I know this - I know it very well. But I can't help it - it's my nature. I'll drink from this glass, or spill it, just as I choose... I wrest from her the glass, full of water to be had for the taking. I hold it in my own hands."The drink of water symbolizes a cleansing of herself, of her guilt. Even in her final minutes of life her pride won't allow her to accept her daughter-in-law's help. This glass of water was an attempt at rejuvenating herself for life after death.T...
