Book: Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
TOPIC(S) and/or
EVENT(S)
1. [a] This book is
about a persons’ mistakes and the punishment not seen through all the way.
Hester should not have been the only one punished, for this deed required 2
people in order for it to have happen. Now she has to handle her life that way
and now raise a young daughter who is stranger than most young children.
[b] This book is about
a mistake that affected the life of one women who is now having to deal with
the entire town looking down on her and raising a child who seems to have a
hard time fitting in.
2. I believe that
Hawthorne wrote a book about this event because like me he found it interesting
and exciting. He saw this event as the best way to get the idea of thinking
before you act out there since what happened here was so dark and twisted that
it just had to be written about and read by everyone. With that the hopes that
everyone would actually catch on to one of the morals then we would all have
spent the time reading it well because we’d all walk away learning something we
already knew but now take more seriously. That being think before you act.
3. I chose this book
because I liked the whole story, one mistake messing up one persons’ entire
life and the other person being in deep guilt about what he had done. A story
like this really appealed to me because it showed me that one simple mistake
could mess up everything and leave the people involved in some life changing
problems. The way this whole story unfolded was always causing me to keep
turning the page, I mean first the women is being ridiculed and out of nowhere
the man is standing in front of his audience and is admitting to everything he
had done. This book was unpredictable.
4. This book seemed
very realistic, mostly due to the fact that there have been many versions of
this story told and the fact that this could happen to everyone in a different
way. With that said I can say that I can relate to Dimmesdale who felt much
guilt after doing what he did. Now I can say I have made mistakes that gave me
similar results, although my mistake wasn’t like his at all, I still felt guilt
afterwards because everyone but me got punished. This was an event that
happened last year and I couldn’t believe that everyone but me got caught. At
first I felt HUGE relief because I was the one that got away but after that
passed I felt bad for everyone that did get caught. So I can say that in this
situation I was a lot like Dimmesdale but I never admitted what I did.
PEOPLE
1. I would say yes, if
we met the actual characters we more than likely would see them differently.
That tells me that Hawthorne was one who interpreted certain things in his own
way, every single little detail is not going to be right. I believe he wanted
to write this book because he found this whole situation to be very
interesting, I mean there was such a big consequence to that one action. The
authors overall tone was more dark than anything and this tells me that the
author really enjoyed stories that had twists and turns and not so good
results.
2. Hester is a women on
the tall side, she is very attractive and has long beautiful black hair. She is
more of a quiet one, but once she wants to can be the most talkative person you
can imagine. She is only shy around newer people. To write about her I would
use direct characterization mostly because she is quiet so I would have to tell
the audience what she is like. Now Pearl is a strange little girl, she is light
skinned, short for her age, very thin, and also has that long black hair. She
is also very quiet and does not get along with other kids. For her I would also
use direct characterization since she just stays quiet a lot.
3. I liked these people
because they seem the most real. I feel like these are actual people that I would
meet in life and I can’t see that with other people.
MORE
1. When the author says
that Hester was in a darker place and was only seeking the approval of the rest
of the town were forms of direct characterization, we would not have known this
is if Hawthorne had not told us. Also indirect characterization happens when we
see Pearl in the woods and when we see the struggle Dimmesdale is going through,
we are told all of this and have to realize that Pearl is not like most kids
and Dimmesdale is one that feels much guilt for what he did. Hawthorne uses
both method in order to make the story more interesting, if everything was told
to the audience it would not be as interesting.
2. Overall the author’s
diction and syntax does not change when he is talking about characters. If you
notice throughout the book his sentence structure does not change and his word
choice seems to stay constant.
3. The protagonist in
the story is a dynamic character as well as a round character. I say this because
as the story began she was one who kept to herself and tried to just get by.
Then as the story progressed she started to look for help with her daughter and
also with herself. She began to obtain the traits of a normal human being and
finally became part of the town again.
4. After I finished the
book I did feel like I had met Hester because of how I analyzed her throughout
the book. I feel like someone like her is one that I could actually meet at
some point in life, I was stunned at the similarities with her and actual
people I know.
STYLE
1. Hawthorne used many
tools from fiction writing, the one that was most common was foreshadowing. One
of the times we see foreshadowing a lot is when Hester and her daughter are in
the woods and the daughter is off in the darker parts of it. It tells us a bit
about her, showing us that she is one that is very different from other kids
and even though we do not know a lot about her we can assume that she is one
that keeps to herself and might be called a freak by other children or by
somebody else later in the story.
2. The author here
focuses more on the actions and dialogue than on descriptions. With that in
mind then the book becomes open to imagination, I mean since Hawthorne does not
fully describe the town or anything then you could imagine how it looks and
everything. I love that about books because I can make the setting however I
see fit.
3. In order to create a
mood and tone the author used actions that demonstrated what the character was
thinking and doing. With the characters actions being put there we can
instantly imagine a tone or mood being placed there. For example when we see
Hester’s daughter in the woods we get a darker mood from this because she
wonders off a bit alone and her surrounding area is darker that other parts of
the woods. This is how he was able to create a tone or mood.
4. Towards the
characters I would imagine that the author’s attitude would have been more
joyful and interested. I say this because he actually took the time to write an
entire novel about this topic and about these people, although he more than
likely thinks that the punishments were a bit harsh on them he was still into
the idea that all this really happened.
5. The author did not
really offer any resources so it did not matter to my thinking of the
book/story because there was nothing to interfere with my thinking.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
1. The key people learn
that it is better to confess what you have done than to keep things secret and
watch them slowly get worse. The finally learn this after seeing the affect it
had on poor Pearl, finally Dimmesdale confessed what he had done in front of
everyone. The book slowly revealed that this turn of events was going to happen
and just led me to believe it to happen which it did.
ENDUING MEMORY
The main idea I got out of this book is to always think
before you act because you never know what can happen with the choices you make
and once they are made there’s no going back. I chose to always remember this
one because I feel like this is something I can actually use on a daily basis,
other ideas I can’t see myself ever using. Every single day I am faced with
choices to make and I can always remember that once one is made I can’t go back
with my eraser and change it, I have to deal with it. This causes me to be more
careful with the things I do, I have to learn now that there are consequences
to any choice I make. This is something everybody can relate to because
everyone and I mean EVERYONE has to make choices at one time or another, and
they have to know what they are choosing before they actually decide on it. We
have to learn to think before acting.
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