Chapter 1 Summary

The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence begins by describing the cemetery monument that used to stand over the protagonist's mother's grave. The monument is a stone angel brought at great price from Italy. The heroine of the story wonders if the angel is still there, and notes with wry irony that the angel was "doubly blind," not only made of stone, but also carved without eyeballs, yet stands in the cemetery to guide the townspeople to heaven.

The protagonist calls herself "Hagar" and comments on an epitaph for a bland woman named Regina, who had cared for her elderly, ungrateful mother. Hagar comments that Regina is forgotten just as she, Hagar, is. Thoughts of the stone angel remind Hagar of the long walks she used to take through the cemetery, since it was the only place that a proper girl could walk outside...