Difficulty Paper- Scarlett letter 2

The Scarlet Letter was definitely the hardest book I’ve read in a while. The problem was just that the language was difficult to understand and it seemed like there were a lot of sentences that didn’t seem like they really needed to be there, which just made the story longer. Another problem was that there were parts of the story where it was really boring and that definitely made it harder to read. When we first started to read this book, I started to read the introduction, The Custom House, and that was where I knew this what kind of story this was going to be. Once I got into the first scene though, I thought it was interesting. I could understand what was going on in the first scene. I guess my problem is that I need there to be action and also dialogue. I understand stories a lot more when the characters are actually talking, probably just because there is a lot more action. 

Difficulty Paper & Annotated Bibliography- the glass menagerie

Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. New York: New Directions, 1999. Print.

The Glass Menagerie was definitely a lot easier to read than The Scarlet Letter. To my surprise, I thought this play was kind of interesting. I usually don’t like to read plays, but this one was different. The characters were all very interesting people. We could all tell that Tom didn’t want to be living at home anymore. I sometimes feel like I want to move out too, but I would never do it in a way where I would abandon my family, like Tom did...I did enjoy reading and watching this play. This play was a lot more interesting than The Scarlet Letter too. We should have read more things like this in the class this semester

annotated bibliography-literary criticism

Ryskamp, Charles. “The New England Sources of The Scarlett Letter”. Duke University Press. 1959. 291-303.

In this literary criticism, Ryskamp talks about the years in which The Scarlet Letter takes place. I found this helpful for my research paper because I can tell what age Pearl was in each chapter. He says the first four chapters took place in 1642, chapters seven and eight were in 1645, and the rest of the story took place in 1649. This means that Pearl was an infant, and then the story jumps to when she was three, and then once more to when she was seven. He also gives a lot of background information on Puritans, which I also found helpful in my research paper. 

annotated bibliography-the scarlet letter

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Scarlett Letter and Other Writings”.  Norton Critical Edition. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company Inc, 2005. Print.

The Scarlett Letter was a story about a woman, Hester who committed adultery and now must wear the letter “A” on her sleeve. Usually, the punishment would be death, but since Hester had a child, they let her live. Pearl was a result of Hester’s adultery and therefore an evil child. The whole story after that is about trying to find out who committed the sin with Hester. We find out that it’s one of the most respected men of their town, Arthur Dimmesdale, whose name happens to start with the letter “A”. Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, seeks revenge on Arthur and Hester after he finds out. The story ends after Dimmesdale reveals the secret to the town and then dies after being sick throughout the story.   

scarlet letter-research paper

                                                                                       

Reader Response To Pearl

In the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist Hester Prynne has a child named Pearl. While Hester’s husband was away, she slept with another man. Pearl was the result of Hester committing adultery, so when Pearl was born society saw Pearl as an evil child. Puritans were very strict when it came to marriage, “ Puritans consider sex to be pure and a means to strengthen the unity and bond between a man and a wife” (Bhatti). Since Hester was already married the Puritan society saw her actions as bad so Pearl was the image of something bad and a sign if Satan. Everyone in the town saw Pearl as a demon child and therefore evil. Pearl also had some characteristics that made her seem like she was a demon child, even to Hester, “ Her mother, while Pearl was yet an infant, grew acquainted with a certain peculiar look, that warned her when it would be labor thrown away to insist, persuade, or plead. It was a look so intelligent,yet inexplicable, so perverse, sometimes so malicious, but generally accompanied by a wild flow of spirits, that Hester could not help questioning, at such moments, whether Pearl was a human child” (63). Even Pearl’s own mother thought that there was something different about her, that she wasn’t a regular child, even at a young age. I, however, don’t think that Pearl was an evil child, but a good child with a mind that was that thought differently than others. Pearl also had a lot of positive influence on Hester’s life. 

                                                                           

The Puritans believed that when the marriage bond was broken by something like cheating on your spouse, then the punishment should be death. This is how the townspeople felt  Hester should be convicted. They had a lot of hate for towards her, “ At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead...But she-the naughty baggage,-little will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown!” (39). The townspeople know that Hester isn’t going to get as much punishment as she should. The reason for this is because of Pearl. Knowing that Hester has a child they don’t give her the death sentence. In a way, Pearl saved her mother’s life just by being born. 

According to the narrator, Pearl had times where she would get really mad, “ These outbreaks of a fierce temper had a kind of value, even for her mother” (65). There was a time when she got mad at kids that were around her, “ If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble, because they had so much the sound of a witch’s anathemas in some unknown tongue” (64). Pearl doesn’t like the to play with the other kids, instead she gets mad when they’re around and throws rocks at them. In my experience, kids fight with kids. One of my younger cousins always fights with my other cousin because he pushed him down a slide about a year ago. Kids will fight and argue if they have a reason to do so and Pearl did. Pearl had a reason to fight the other kids, “ The truth was, that the little Puritans, being of the most intolerant brood that ever lived, had got a vague idea of something outlandish, unearthly, or at variance with ordinary fashions, in the mother and child; and therefore scorned them in their hearts...Pearl felt the sentiment, and requited it with the 

    

bitterest hatred that can be supposed to rankle in a childish bosom” (64). Pearl knew that everyone in the town looked down on her because the scarlet letter. Pearl’s temper tantrums are cause by the hatred towards her and her mother, which is like her getting pushed down the slide, it’s something that aggravated them and is the reason for anger. 

Pearl was just trying to defend herself and her mom. Hester realizes that she has reasons for getting mad at the other kids, “ These outbreaks of a fierce temper had a kind of value, and even comfort, for her mother; because at least an intelligible earnestness in the mood, instead of the fitful caprice that so often thwarted her in the child’s manifestations” (64). Hester knows and realizes that Pearl has reasons for her anger. She knows that Pearl knows that people don’t like them and Pearl is just defending them.

The Reverend Mr. Wilson also thought that Pearl was evil. When Hester and Pearl went to the Governor’s mansion, Pearl was acting weird and Wilson said, “ The little baggage hath witchcraft in her I profess, she needs no old woman’s broomstick to fly withal!” (78).  Pearl was changing moods spontaneously and she made herself look strange. This doesn’t show that she is evil, it just shows that she has a short intention span like every other kid.

There was a time when Dimmesdale and Chillingworth were looking out the window and they saw Pearl dancing on someone’s grave. Chillingworth said, “ I saw her, the other day, bespatter the Governor himself with water, at the cattle trough in Spring Lane.What, in Heaven’s name is she? Is the imp altogether evil? Hath she affections? Hath she any discoverable principles of being?” (89). Dimmesdale then said, “ Whether capable of good, I know not” (89). When Pearl heard them, she looked up at them and smiled and threw one of the things she had 

    

picked up. I think she threw at him because he was now saying negative stuff about her after being nice to her at the mansion.

Right after Pearl threw the prickly burr, she told her mom that they should leave, “ Come away, mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already. Come away mother, or he will catch you! But he cannot catch Pearl!” (90).  This statement by Pearl shows how intelligent she is. She calls Roger Chillingworth the old Black Man, which we later find out is a demon. We know Chillingworth is an ugly man and has a lot of bad features. We also know that he wants revenge. Pearl recognizes all of this and she knows that there is something evil about him. While Chillingworth thinks that there’s something evil about her, she thinks there’s something evil about him because she called him the Black Man.

Pearl is an intelligent little girl. She knows things that are a surprise, like that Chillingworth isn’t a good guy. She isn’t evil either. She just thinks differently than all of the other kids her age. She also acts spontaneously just like a regular kid. She saved her mother’s life just by being born. Kids are kids and they act and speak what they want, but it doesn’t make them evil, even if they do some bad things.

Difficulty Paper- Scarlett letter

The Scarlett Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, so far, has talked about a woman, Hester Prynne, who has been convicted adultery. This is the actual story, however the introduction of the story was confusing to me. If I understood some of it right, I think it says that Hawthorne, or whoever is the narrator, finds a book or some pages and then he begins to read them. I think at first they describe the world, that the person who wrote them, is living in. I think he finds the Scarlett letter A, which we later find out is Prynne’s. I’m not really sure if the other stuff said are the narrator’s words or if it’s still part of the pages that he is reading. Is the actual story being written by the narrator or is it being read from the pages found? Also, I don’t know if my reasoning and summary are correct so I would appreciate if someone could correct the summary and answer my question.

Difficulty Paper- Minister's Black Veil

The short story The Minister’s Black Veil, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story about a minister who decides to wear to cover his face with a black veil. The minister decides one day to cover his face and it makes all of the townspeople question him. They think that he has committed a terrible sin, since that can be the only explanation according to them, and also because he gave his sermon on sins, which was implied by the townspeople that it was about the minister. I really enjoyed this story, it was very interesting but there was something that was hard for me to understand. At the end of the story, the minister says that while he was wearing the veil, everyone was thinking that he had done something bad, but then he said it was the people that were bad because they were avoiding him and kids had screamed out of horror. What I got out of this was that he had the veil on to prove that the townspeople and everyone else were very judgmental on looks, which is a sin. The last lines though is what made me think twice, “  Still veiled, they laid him in his coffin, and a veiled corpse they bore him to the grave... but awful is still the thought that it [his face] mouldered beneath the Black Veil!” (Hawthorne last paragraph). I was confused on the part where it says his awful face beneath the black veil. Does this mean that the minister really committed a sin? Was the minister saying that the people were judgmental as an excuse for something that he really did?