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Outdated Issues In The Scarlet Letter

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Outdated novels that include topics such as adultery and the pressure of society, can be used to help high school students learn important morals, including how to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 These are only a select amount of morals that can be taught through outdated books. Books such as The Scarlet Letter have used their hard to swallow topics and their "outdated" issues such as adultery to help reach out to a relatable audience.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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses Hester to create the theme of reputation by presenting her as a woman whose reputation was ruined by an extramarital affair. She endures being forced to stand on a scaffold while holding her newborn babe, while villagers gossip below. "You must needs be a stranger in this region, friend," answered the townsman, looking curiously at the

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Rhetorical Analysis: Comment briefly (3 to 5 sentences?) on the rhetorical elements below. The purpose of this section is to highlight the book’s distinctive features. * Exigency It is imperative to read this novel because it gives one an understanding of the Puritans’ cultural values.

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“A garbled echo returned to her. A final surge of fury shook her and she roared, ‘Who do you think you are?’” (O’Connor 33) This line is from Revelation when Mrs. Turpin was talking to a person that judged her, little did she know this person was jesus. Flannery O’Connor is trying to show that people often put themselves before others without ever wanting or letting themselves and others judge them.

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We are all sinners, no matter how hard we try to hide our faults, they always seem to come back, one way or another. Written in the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us Hester Prynne and how one sin can change her life completely. Hester Prynne changes a great deal throughout The Scarlet Letter. Through the view of the Puritans, Hester is an intense sinner; she has gone against the Puritan way of life committing the highest act of sin, adultery. For committing such a sinful act, Hester must wear the scarlet letter while also having to bear stares from those that gossip about her.

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All books that young adults read have power. Their power results in their ability to sway and to change the reader in so many ways, not the least of these is morally. These books can create a moral sense in the young by demonstrating what is morally right and what is morally wrong. They can raise and resolve ethical issues. The reader may not agree with each resolution, but is certainly forced to think about issues he or she may never have thought about before (Smith 63).

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In the beginning the scarlet letter represented adultery and shame, but then the A represented “able.” Hester Prynne showed people that greatness can come out of huge mistake. One bad chapter does not mean your story is over. Willingly, Hester wanted to pick herself up again and move on with her life and eventually people noticed that. They began to respect her and think of her as strong and commendable

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Book banning in public schools should cease in existence, for the reason that controlling what students should or should not read violates the first amendment right of freedom of speech, some students to feel left out or treated as burdens when they are not allowed to read a book for an assignment, leaving minority students misrepresented or not represented at all, and preconditions the mindsets of students to formulate a preconceived idea rather than students formulating their own opinions. To form their own opinions students need to be exposed to all avenues in a safe, controlled environment, such as schools, in order to truly find out who they are, and who or what they want to represent. If parents have an issue with the topics discussed

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She is a beautiful, young woman who has sinned, but is forgiven. Hawthorne portrays Hester as "divine maternity" and she can do no wrong. Not only Hester, but also the physical scarlet letter, a sign of shame, is shown as a beautiful, gold and colorful piece which

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Restricted but not Forgotten Literature, old or modern, has always been subject to criticism and judgement due to the issues that exist within classic novels. Whether the issue contains profanity, violence, or content too mature for young readers, concerned parents and students continue to threaten to ban and forget award-winning books’ existences. Unfortunately for Ken Kesey’s classic, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, restricting the novel is potentially the only course of action. While the book displays violence unsuitable for high school curriculums, libraries must continue to include Ken Kesey’s classic novel. Although the novel teaches valuable life lessons about individuality and is mild compared to modern media, high school curriculums

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If not in a safe classroom environment, where is a better setting to expose children to real world issues and behaviors. While there is heavy emphasis placed on the importance of breaking the status quo and the law in particular, such behaviors demonstrated in "Fahrenheit 451" encourage problem solving and individual thinking in the minds of students. As stated by Grace Chen, "The attempt to expose students to challenging topics and issues, as many teachers support, is not intended to force students into a certain mode of thought; moreover, the books are to serve as opportunities for students to think, theorize, question, and explore(8). " Books like "Fahrenheit 451" truly foreshadow this future of complete censorship and lack of individual thinking. Huckleberry Fin demonstrates critical thinking, and promotes the understanding of the time period it is set it.

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As a result Hester was forced to wear the letter A, otherwise known as the Scarlet Letter, upon her bosom. The scarlet letter later became part of Hester’s dignity and identity. As another form of her punishment, she was bored to the scaffold to stand in front of all people but “without undergoing the gripe and confinement of the head” (Hawthorne 53). Hawthorne’s words imply that Hester stood on the platform to be shamed by the people, but did not have to face the guillotine. One might ponder if Hester was favored in her

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719 Words | 3 Pages

The townspeople “[began] to look upon the scarlet letter as a token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.” This quote exemplifies how sin is not a death sentence for Hester. Through hard work and charity it allowed the rigid Puritan society to see her as something different, and as someone who would not let society define who she was. Hester, thus, was not only able to change herself, but also the image in which society viewed her by working hard to benefit the public. Likewise, the scarlet letter which was supposed to represent sin was instead “fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.”

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Hester Prynne is the very embodiment of feminism because of her refusal to adhere to the societal norms, her independence in thought, and how the view of the society around her changes through the novel. One of the main reasons why Hester Prynne is an important and progressive feminist character in The Scarlet Letter is her refusal to follow societal norms or to be put down by her peers. A primary example of her refusal to be put down by her peers is when Hester brandishes her

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The English curriculum of American high schools includes works such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, and Macbeth. However, another book causes fierce debate about its inclusion in literary relevance. The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most controversial texts to grace the public education system with its heavy use of slang, mature scenarios, and bleak views of society.

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“I look at books as being a form of activism because a lot of times they’ll show us a side of the world that we may not have known about” (Angie Thomas). Fiction is not castles, and dragons that are slayed by knights anymore; as children become young adolescents the stories that nurtured their innocence matures and starts to question societal issues. “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas talked about the racial injustice and police brutality that specifically African-Americans face in their day-to-day life. Starr, a main character, witness her childhood friend, Khalil, get murdered by a white policemen who pulled them over for a broken taillight and later shot Khalil in the back 3 times because he “feared for his life”. Angie Thomas not only explained

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