at the Shipley place. These flowers were not taken care of and they "hung like bunches of mild mauve grapes". (pg.25). Similarly, Hagar did not care about living a normal, natural life, which caused her to be in miserable conditions, much like the lilacs. When Hagar returned to the Shipley place years later, all the flowers were dead. Her lilacs were "burnt yellow, and the branches snapped if you touched them," (pg. 150) and her marigolds, which she always took care of, were "a dead loss". (pg. 150). The death of her marigolds showed how creating life artificially will not work, since her marigold were cultivated continuously. Hagar's life was lived artificially, with very little naturalness or spontaneity, thus she stifled her enjoyment of a free life for the sake of appearances. When Hagar went off on her final journey of self-discovery, she realizes she has led a poor, artificial life and although this realization has come very late in her life, she tries to do away with this pretentiousness. At one point Hagar takes off her hat which was "a prim domestic hat sprouting cultivated flowers" (pg. 193) and replaced the hat with dead June bugs, in an effort to be natural. There is other imagery (such as mirror imagery) which also helps to develop Margaret Laurence's story; however, it wasn't personally seen as powerful as the ones discussed. All the imagery throughout the novel helps the themes, characters, or plot to be more effective. The biblical imagery aids the development of Hagar's character and the plot. The water imagery helps to establish the theme of death and to attempt the impossible - escape from death. The flower imagery showed the way Hagar lived her life and the way she sho...
