Outdated Issues In The Scarlet Letter

Outdated novels that include topics such as adultery and the pressure of society, can be used to help high school students learn important morals, including how to overcome prejudice, and the mistake in using stereotypes to judge a person's character. All of these morals and issues can be easily related to a high school students everyday life, thus allowing the students to make a personal connection. These are only a select amount of morals that can be taught through outdated books. Books such as The Scarlet Letter have used their hard to swallow topics and their "outdated" issues such as adultery to help reach out to a relatable audience. The importance of including these novels in high school curriculums is to help expose the students

Books like The Scarlet Letter hold many important lessons and morals for young high school students. Consequently, these lessons often go untaught due to the concern about some questionable material in these books. Although it is true that these books cover some inappropriate topics, it is also true that these topics are what help bring up the important lessons students need to learn. Lessons in adultery or other questionable topics need to be taught in school to help raise awareness to certain issues students may face in the future. Despite all the valid arguments, parents and educators use to explain why books with inappropriate topics should not be used, they always seem to forget that it doesn't matter how much they try to shelter students eventually every student will be exposed to these inappropriate issues. It seems only right that if every student is to some day be exposed to these issues, they should be taught about them at an early, yet mature age so they can be more prepared with how to address these issues in the future. In Max Malikow's essay, "Engaging Students in Controversial Issues", he states that, evaluating controversial issues is "a life skill" (Milkow1). Many people will agree that those who learn how to evaluate controversial issues

The Scarlet Letter is an intriguing novel that teaches high school students an important lesson on labels and how to move past them. The use of labels and stereotypes has been around from the beginning of time and continues to be a prominent issue in today's society. Labels and stereotypes surround high school students on a daily basis and are the center of how teenagers make their character assessments. Some labels include jock, nerd, band geek, and countless more. These stereotypes prove to be hard to overcome when faced with harsh criticism and opposition. Hester Prynne, the protagonist in The Scarlet Letter, has her own permanent label off adulteress placed upon after being charged with adultery. Throughout the novel people continue to see her as a mere woman composed of sin. Although this stereotype brings pain to Hester, she continues to show the people around her that she is more than her letter. She proves to be brave, selfless, compassionate, and much more, and eventually turns her letter into a label meant to represent the ideal, good natured individual. In the beginning of the novel, Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter on her breast and stand on the scaffold for all to see, yet, "In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of