The Stone Angel; Comparison essays

The Stone Angel; Comparison essays The film A Beautiful Mind and the novel The Stone Angel both have a very important and interesting theme: when life throws you a curveball, love will always be there. A Beautiful Mind is a film about the life of John Forbes Nash, a Nobel Prize winner who struggled through most of his adult life with schizophrenia. It is a true story, not only of one man's fight to overcome his own disability, but of the overreaching power of love - a theme that has also been embraced by the book The Stone Angel. This novel deals with the life of Hagar Currie Shipley, a 91-year-old woman who is on a tumultuous journey to accept her own life, and prepare for death. Yet even though she attempts to wrestle against the inevitable, there is always a constant reminder: love is always the key to happiness. Thus, the film and the novel explore the true importance of love and its role our lives. Both characters experience different stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance in their quest to define their lives and learn the fact that love is the most important thing. At one time, 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 unknown. When Hagar Shipley realizes the proximity of death, she is in denial. She comes to live in a world of memories in the past. All her life, she was hard, never showing emotion, even through the passing of her husband. However, near the end she comes to a new understanding, although she would not admit it: what is the purpose of living life, happily or unhappily, if there is a lack of love and trust? Likewise, John Nash is faced with his own death when he finally realizes that he is a schizophrenic, has taken many chances with his life already, and may die a lonely man if he does not come to accept his situation and use the remainder of h...