A Comparison Between the Bible and The Stone Angel Essay

In addition to the similarities between the two Hagars, jakes and Marvin, Hagars sons, agree Jacob and Esau, direct descendants of Abram and Sarah. In Hagars eyes, John is her Jacob. Hagar protects and favours John the very(prenominal) way that Rebekah favours Jacob. In the Bible, Isaac, a blind man, plans to bestow his final invokeings upon Esau, his first son. Rebekah, having overheard Isaacs intentions, instructs Jacob to take Esaus place and to receive his brothers blessings.As such, Jacob is blessed by Isaac and flees into the wilderness upon his mothers educational activity out of fear of Esau. Similarly, John flees from his family and into his own wilderness, Manawaka. In Manawaka John tends to his decease father, Bram, and receives Brams blessing before his death. Marvin never receives Brams blessing, even though they were close when Marvin was a child. John, in essence, takes Marvins place. More important, however, in this simile is the relationship each boy shares with Hagar.Hagar, having always been inclined to love John more, wants John to be her Jacob and to want and to receive her blessing. She says, I wish he could have looked like Jacob then, wrestling with the angel and besting it (Laurence 179), as John struggles to surface the stone angel tombstone for Hagar. John dies before Hagar receives a bef whole to bestow her blessings upon him. It is only in dying that Hagar realizes, through Marvins kindness, that Marvin is her Jacob. He is the son that loves and cares for her more than anything else.Hagar states, Now it seems to me he (Marvin) is truly Jacob, gripping with all his strength, and bargaining. I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And I see I am thus strangely cast, and maybe have been so from the beginning and can only release myself by releasing him (Laurence 304). He will not let Hagar go downhearted into that good night(Thomas, prologue). Marvin finally receives Hagars blessings, the blessings that John had, for so long, undeservingly taken.