Annotated Bibliography

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings". Norton Critical Edition. New York, London: W.W. Norton; Company, 2005. Print.

Puritans believed that God would forgive any person for their sins, not matter what the sin was, yet many of the townspeople (mostly the women) would show no mercy for Hester. In the book right before Hester is released from prison, the townspeople gather and wait for the prison door to swing open. They anticipate the look on her shameful face.

"'Goodwives,' said a hard-featured dame of fifty, 'I’ll tell ye a piece of my mind. It would be greatly for the public behoof if we women, being of mature age and church-members in good repute, should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne. What think ye, gossips? If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded? Marry, I trow not.'" (Hawthorne 57).

It is clear that the townspeople did not welcome Hester back into town with open arms. Many of the women had made up their minds about Hester and what kind of person she was. They know Heseter to be an adulteress who should never be given a second chance. Once a sinner, always a sinner.

Difficulty Paper

I never had to read the Scarlet Letter in high school so when I began to read the book I wasn't expecting the book to be written in Old English. It was hard to get used to at first because of the way they talked in this era. Nathaniel Hawthorne's style of writing is very different from what I'm used to. Whenever there was something I didn't understand in the text I would look up a word I didn't understand, or use context clues to figure out what was being said in the novel. A lot of times I had to go back and re-read a page or paragraph to understand what was taking place in the story.When I began to read the book I didn't really catch onto most of the symbolism in the book. After we discussed symbolism, the characters, and certain occurrances in the novel (in class) I had a better understanding of what was really happening in the story and why it was happening. Hawthorne has an interesting way of using symbolism in his stories. As I read The Scarlet Letter I noticed it was sort of similar to Hawthorne's short storyYoung Goodman Brown, regarding symbolism, the Puritan society, and a few "dark characters". Once I began to notice the symbolism in the story more it made the book more interesting to read and gave the setting, the characters, and occurrances more meaning. Such as Hester having to wear the letter "A" on her clothing everyday.

"On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter ‘A.’ It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony."

The "A" symbolized her sin of adultry, later in the story Hester changes the meaning of the letter "A" by all of her hard work and charity, the meaning was soon known to be "able". It seemed as if Hester was proud to wear the letter "A" on her clothing, it was as if it empowered her character, it set her apart from the rest of the women in this Puritan society she lived in. I think because Hester had to wear the letter "A" everyday it opened her eyes as to how cruel the Puritan townspeople could be, it was as if she was now an outsider looking in on the Puritan society and laws.

"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid

In the poem "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid, it seems as if a mother is talking to her young daughter, teaching her all the things she was taught as a young girl. In the quote "this is how you hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and to prevent yourself from looking like the slut you are so bent on becoming" it is obvious the mother is very conservative, and arguably old fashioned because she believes that if her daughters hem were to come down, men will perceive her as a slut. This incident could happen and I'm sure has happened to many girls but nowadays less clothing has almost become the norm these days for many young girls and women. Whether we like it or not, the media, television, music, and magazines have sort of brain washed/convinced many young girls that short shorts and low-cut tops are what's in style. I think it's a persons perogative to dress however they like. If a grown woman wants to wear a short dress or a low cut shirt she should be able to but she's also taking her chances of getting judged, people having pre-conceived notions about her, and also harsh words against her. I don't agree with everything this poem saying but I do like the whole idea of a mother teaching her young daughter to grow up to be a smart and respectable woman. It's important for young girls to have a good role model to look up to and imitate as they mature. I am definitely fortunenate to have a great role model who I love and look up to. I have a lot of respect for my mother, she's a very smart woman and she has taught me a lot over the years. Over all I think this poem sends a positive message, it's just a mother teaching her daughter right from wrong and bringing her up to be a strong and independent woman.

Kate Chopin's "The Story of An Hour"

Kate Chopin's "The Story of An Hour" is a short story about a woman who is told that her husband has been killed in an accident. It's as if she has mixed emotions about the death of her husband. One minute she is sad and the next minute she is kind of happy about it because she will finally have the chance to do what she pleases when she pleases. She has discovered a new found freedom within the death of her husband. In the last line of "The Story of An Hour" it states, "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills." This quote is the climatic moment in the story, yet it is also the resolution . The words "of the joy that kills" represent verbal irony. Throughout the story it is said that she was sad about the death of her husband but she only loved him sometimes. Although she was mourning, she was also celebrating her freedom at the same time. "'Free! Body and soul free!' she kept whispering." At the end of the story when she found out her husband was really alive it was as if her dreams of being free were crushed, she would never get the chance to live for herself. When she saw her husband at the front door, just the sight of him killed her. Something that had once brought her joy, killed her in the end.

Crowds reaction to Mr Dimsdale

When Mr Dimsdale revealed the scarlet letter to the towns people, because of their Puritan beliefs, they felt that even though he committed a sin, God still had mercy upon sinners because even ministers such as
Mr Dimsdale have the ability to sin. They state this when they say "Mercy which looks down, and repudiate more utterly the phantom of human merit, which would look aspiringly upward. Without disputing a truth so momentus, we must be allowed to consider this version of Mr. Dimsdale's story as only an instance of that stubborn fidelity with which a man's friends-and especially a clergyman's-will sometimes uphold his character; when proofs, clear as the mid-day sunshine on the scarlet letter, establish him a false and sin-stained creature of the dust." (212)


Brielle Roberts
Sarah Lopez