The Scarlet Letter...

Now I finally have time to blog! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and a nice shopping experience during Black Friday. Today I'm going to talk about a book that I read recently in my sophomore advanced English class called The Scarlet Letter. This book had a profound effect on me and my thinking of adultery and hypocrisy.

Set in Puritan New England, Hawthorne's classic tale is a clever method of exorcism. It is Hawthorne's method for confronting his own demons. As anyone who truly knows the book is aware, Hawthorne's great-grandfather was responsible for some of the hangings during the Salem Witch Trials. Hawthorne was torn apart by this knowledge, knowing that his own relative was responsible for the deaths of many.

The Scarlet Letter is about choice and consequence just as much as it is about truthfulness and the effect of lies. The main character, Hester Prynne, chose to sin, and her consequence was to bear a scarlet letter, an A, meaning adultery. What makes the novel so interesting is how she is treated by the religious Puritans who consider adultery a capital offense. Moreover, her fellow sinner is one of these Puritans, a minister!

The Scarlet Letter's genius comes from its expert use of symbolism. Everything (I mean everything) stands for something else in this novel--the forest, the scaffold, the rose bush, the characters themselves. Never has a novel used symbolism so effectively!

I believe that The Scarlet Letter is a changing book. It shows the outcome of built up, unconfessed sin. It is also a highly influential and important book to have a knowledge of. If you have ever left a sin unconfessed, read this book! If you have ever been a victim of over religious hypocrisy, read this book!