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Minister's Black Veil Essay

828 Words4 Pages

We can all say that we’ve judged people at first glance. Your appearance can say a lot about who you are. There are many situations in which people are being judged wrongfully. In the Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mr. Hooper was being unfairly judged by the black veil he was wearing. I, as well, have judged people unfairly by what they were wearing, but for good reasons. In my opinion, appearance directly links to the type of person you are as shown in the Minister's Black Veil, with the actions people showed towards Mr. Hooper's new look as well as my own experiences. Mr. Hooper was a good man, still young in age, a pastor in a small town, and with a wife. One day, when Mr. Hooper was heading to do his daily routine(heading …show more content…

Hooper negatively not only excluding him from events, but also talking about him with others as well as being afraid of him when they knew him for years. An example of the negative judgement being directed towards Mr. Hooper can be seen when Mr. Hooper’s parishioners “neglected to invite Mr. Hooper to his table” (Hawthorne 7). You can already see how Mr. Hoopers friends are excluding Mr. Hooper from events such as not inviting him to sit with them and eat. By Mr. Hoopers friends doing this, you can see how they have taken into consideration only the appearance of Mr. Hooper thinking he is hiding something dark and sinful, in which led them to excluding and being afraid of Mr. Hooper. Another example of appearance defining who you are can also be seen in the parable,“The black veil, though it covers only our pastor's face, throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghostlike from head to foot” (Hawthorne 7). This shows how 1 small piece of cloth that you are wearing can make a huge impact on the type of person you are. As stated in the quote, it can get you from being a nice and gentle pastor to being a scary and frightening pastor that no one wants to be around. Essentially, it can be seen that appearance does link to the type of person you are in the Minister's Black Veil by the actions the people took towards Mr. Hooper's new

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