Spirited Away Vs Scarlet Letter

The world is full of exceptions. Even though society likes to categorize people, not all Americans are obese and gun-loving, not all Mexicans are gardeners, and not all Asians are smart. Similarly, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki have characters that are exceptions in the strict societal structure they live, so their positions in society are ambiguous. Both Spirited Away and The Scarlet Letter blur society’s viewpoint of what is good or acceptable and what is not; in fact, both authors utilize the ambiguity of the characters to criticize the unreasonable expectations of society and to emphasize human nature’s capability and the importance of self-improvement.

In The Scarlet Letter, many characters

Chihiro is first depicted as a vile and nasty human, but the spirits slowly accept her as she makes friends with her caring and sincere personality. However, she will never truly be on the same level as the spirits since she plans to leave the spirit world as a human. Even though Haku is Yubaba’s henchman, he does all he can to protect Chihiro without Yubaba knowing, which contradicts his job as a henchman. The love between Chihiro and Haku often makes them disregard bathhouse customs. Chihiro, being an employee, is supposed to serve guests, but ignores her duty to save Haku and return the golden seal to Zeniba. For Chihiro, worldly possessions like gold offered by No Face is unimportant compared to love. Haku purposely goes against Yubaba by threatening her with the fact that her baby is gone and she would have to grant Chihiro freedom for Boh’s safe return. Usually unyielding to pressure, greedy, and intimidating, Yubaba only gives in to her rules when Boh begins to cry and she makes a deal to give Chihiro a job, and when Haku saves Boh in exchange for Chihiro’s freedom. Yubaba shows that she loves her baby more than money and her own rules. No Face is defined by the spirits as a horrible monster, but he is revealed to actually just seek companionship, not a monster. The bathhouse is a

As the love between Hester and Dimmesdale results in the breaking of Puritan standards, Chihiro and Haku’s love also breaks the customs in the bathhouse. Bellingham sets the regulations for Puritan society, but ignores the regulations by having immense wealth, while Yubaba as the head of the bathhouse is usually concerned with money, overlooks everything else when her baby is in danger. Chillingworth, who was once a caring man, then devoted his life to harm Dimmesdale, while No Face, who is evil according to spirits, is actually just lonely. Both authors utilize how characters do not conform to rigid societal boundaries in order to criticize the strict regulations of society. Hawthorne sought to blame Puritans for having unreasonable expectations of people with the fact that human nature affects everyone, so Puritans did not have the “city upon a hill.” Miyazaki, by using characters who stray from bath house rules, is similarly pointing out how most of society nowadays is too success-oriented, lacking emphasis on emotions and