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. The flower imagery aids the story by showing the two opposing ways to live your life. In the novel there is imagery of wild flowers and of cultivated flowers. Much like people, some are wild and others are tame or predictable. Hagar lived most of her life like a cultivated flower. Her inner responses are natural and wild; however, externally she acts rationally and tamely in fear of her overall appearance being effected if she acted spontaneously. Cultivated flowers symbolize death in that they are not permitted to grow freely and naturally, the very cause of their existence is being destroyed by their unnaturalness. The perfume "Lily of the Valley", which was given to Hagar by her granddaughter, Tina, was a symbol of death. Hagar says to herself, "I would not expect her to know that the lilies of the valley, so white and almost too strongly sweet, were the flowers we used to weave into the wreaths for the dead." (pg. 28). (This was foreshadowing Hagar's death). Hagar held a high affection for lilacs, the flowers which grew ...
