How Did The Puritans Influence Early American Society

The Puritans had a heavily important part in the formation of early America, as well as a religion that influenced our early American society. This society has been the target which many authors have picked to set their novels in. Two selections that go into detail about some of the different aspects of the Puritan people are The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, and The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. These two particular writers who wrote of Puritan times conveyed, in their text, the values of the Puritan community of 17th century.

In The Crucible, the entire plot is molded by the morals of the Puritan society. This society relied on the "outsider", or a person in Puritan society that is looked on with suspicion. These outsiders were needed

Also with an outsider, Hester Prynne, is perhaps the most obvious example of alienation. She is branded from the beginning of the story by a large red 'A' to be worn always on her bosom as a punishment for the sin of adultery. She cannot escape this marking -- it is there for all to see. Thus, she is marked and labeled as 'different' in her society, which opens her to much scorn and subsequent alienation. Despite Hester's significant involvement and participation in her society, thanks to this indelible mark, she did not belong. Her fellow citizens treat her in such a way that “...every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those with whom she came in contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banished, and as much alone as if she inhabited another sphere.” (Hawthorne 72) The idea of harsh punishment for sins was the broadest of these Puritan values. Hester Prynne was punished with public humiliation and “with only that one ornament, -the scarlet letter,- which it was her doom to wear” (Hawthorne 77). This brings into effect another part of Puritan society, the sin of one community member was the sin of all, ensuring that God's chastisement would fall on the entire community. Collective guilt, then, meant collective and very public punishment. Hester has violated the commandment forbidding adultery, so her public and prolonged punishment is a sort of collective purification. If the sinful individual is made to atone, then maybe the community can itself be washed clean. And if the sinner is especially stubborn, and Hester's refusal to name her child's father is taken as a sign of stubbornness, of disobedience to the church, the community, and its moral well-being, then her punishment must be that much more severe and enduring. If the sinner doesn't repent of her own accord, in other words, then the community will force her into it. Hypocrisy also dots the