Face to Face with Death in Hagar :: Hagar Essays

Face to Face with devastation in Hagar As Hagar faces implications of growing old, she starts on a tumultuous journey, not one of her protest choice, but one of destiny.  She goes through different stages of denial, anger, negotiate, depression and finally word meaning of the fact that death will come, invited or not.             At one date every individual is faced with death, horrific to the young, or inviting to the sick and the old.  Death is interpreted as the end of existence, but to those who believe in the afterlife, as a whole new chapter of the unk directlyn.  When Hagar realizes the proximity of death, she is in denial.  She comes to live in a world of memories in the past.  She created her own illusion because she open firenot understand the flunk coming forth in her, like her tears the incontinent wetness of the rachitic (pg. 31).  All her life, she was hard, never showing emotion, even through the death of John.  You evoke see her softening near the end, although she would not admit it.                    In accessory to denial, she reaches a stage of anger and indignance with her egotism and others in the small world that is her life.  She can no longer perform the simplest tasks such as dressing herself or walking down the stairs.  It irks her to need help, which is one of the reasons she cant stand Doris.  She is also baseless at the lack of emotional control as she perceives how laden with self&8209pity (pg. 31) her voice sounds when arguing with Marvin in one instance.  She cannot control how her speak speaks by itself, the words flowing from somewhere, some half hidden attenuate (pg. 68).             After the denial and anger begin to fade, she attempts a short bargaining period where she wonders what if.  She even tells God to bless her or not only if as You please (pg. 307), but she would not beg.  But even though she attempts to wrestle against the inevitable, there is always a constant reminder.  She places her belief in herself only and faults others credibility, such as Doctor Tappens, to maintain the illusion now hanging by a flimsy thread.             When Hagar realizes she cannot control or hobble the process of old age, she becomes depressed and distant.  When she hears about Silverthreads, she is overcome with fear, the feelings one has when the ethyl ether mask goes on, when the mind cries out to the limbs, flail against the thing, but the limbs are already fey with lethargy, bound and lost (pg.