The Burning Vs The Scarlet Letter

Compare/Contrast Essay

Chelsea Cain, a famous novelist once said, “I’ve always been more interested in what happens after the bad thing has happened-the fallout of the bad thing, when the people are already damaged. I’m less interested in seeing people when they’re fine and following their journey to becoming damaged” (Brainy Quotes). People can never see the good in people they see the one mistake they have made. Hester, and the woman form the barrio make one mistake and the rest of their life are judged by it. Nathaniel Hawthorne author of The Scarlet Letter, and Estela Trambley, author of “The Burning” are both similar stories by using the comparison of the townspeople, being unexpected by the church and finally seeking happiness by the

In the scarlet letter when Hester has her baby she is being talked about by the townspeople. When the king says, “Make way good people, make way, in the kings name he cried open a passage; and I promise you mistress Prynne shall be set were men, woman, and child may have a fair sight….”(Hawthorne 52). In The Scarlet Letter the townspeople are talking about Hester and Pearl on how the crime of adultery has happened. Next in The Scarlet Letter, the girls are being unexpected by the church. When the town’s people are talking and they say, “At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead” (Hawthorne 49). The Scarlet Letter shows the church unaccepting of Hester and Pearl because of adultery. Finally, in The Scarlet Letter Hester realizes that all of her struggles are finally coming to ease. After the shamming has stopped, Hawthorne says, “Hester strong, calm, steadfast enduring spirit almost sank, at last on beholding this dark and grim countenance of inevitable doom…” (Hawthorne 241). In the end of The Scarlet Letter Hester has moved on along with the townspeople and she is finally being accepted in society. The Scarlet Letter features Hester who is not accepted by society, just like how the woman in the barrio is treated from “The

In comparison to The Scarlet Letter the short story the burning has the woman in the barrio being talked about by all the townspeople. The townspeople are talking about her when they say, “In those caves outside the town, she lives for days away from everybody. At night, when she is in the caves, small blinking lights appear like fireflies. Where do they come from? I say, the blackness of her drowns the life in me” (Trambley 298). In comparison to The Scarlet Letter, when Hester is in all the rumors when all the townspeople are talking about her. In “The Burning”, the woman in the barrio is being talked about in all the rumors. Next, these two stories are similar by when Hester is not being accepted by the church or the people in the town just like the woman in the barrio. When the townspeople see her coming and they say, “Flies! Flies! She is a plague! “A clap of thunder red firmed” (Trambley 209). Comparing both The Scarlet Letter and “The Burning”, both Hester and the woman in the barrio are being kicked out of the church and are unexpected by the people around them. Finally in comparison to the scarlet letter, Hester and the woman in the barrio are realizing the struggle is over. When Trambley says, “Something in Lela told her this was the last struggle now” (Trambley 306). Hester and the woman of the barrio are both realizing that