There is a fragility through “Granite,” specifically in the main character, that permeates the whole story. As it moves on, the statement that men are too fragile to love creates an irony as we learn more about the main character. She has been so alone far longer than any of her friends. Her past boyfriends were all violent or harmful to her in some way, and this man is the one she shares many firsts with. There is a certain gentleness to the relationship between them. She will withdraw and reach out as she pleases during the early stages of their relationship. Despite what she sees as her best relationship with a man, something near perfect in her own eyes, there is still a pervasive loneliness.
Such loneliness can be terribly damaging to a relationship. Somebody used to being hurt by their partners or being on their own, such as the narrator, don’t always know properly how to have a relationship in a fulfilling way- especially not with someone fragile like men are posed to be by her friends. The longer that her new boyfriend is around her, the more she loves him, the more that he changes. He will never change in that way by the time he has fully turned to stone, meaning he will never become the monster that she thinks that she made her prior boyfriends into. Instead there is a transformation into something fragile, something she cannot touch lest he crumble to pieces, and destroys him. It is interesting, the way that the idea of her finding love in someone creates this fragility in him that she has been warned about.
This is a very interesting observation, one I didn’t think of when I first read it. It can very much mean that once you’ve been through abuse in your life, that’s all you’ll ever know. Maggie finally gets the perfect man for her, but he is good to her, so she can’t have him. He turns to stone and she must go back out looking for someone else. She may end up with someone worse.
As Kate said this is super interesting. It makes even more sense when you think about how she was almost looking for something to be wrong with him, like she was looking for the relationship not to be perfect. People who have had bad partners tend to look for the worse and don’t think they can deserve/have someone good