i decided to start off my classics reading with this book for two reasons. one being the movie “easy A” and the second being that one of the TAs at the dance studio read it for school and i realized i don’t remember anything from it and i "read" (or cliff noted) it in high school. so before i discuss the book, i just wanted to give an endorsement for “easy A”, most people have seen it by now, but what a cute movie! i'm a bit of a movie snob and had no plans to watch it but rented the dvd, and i was pleasantly surprised. first of all, how cute is emma stone, totally had/have a girl crush on her. also loved her family in the movie, i hope one day to be a cool parent. and lastly loved the 80s movies references at the end, why can’t i get a boy to do that for me? (answer; i’m not a funny yet sexy ginger.)
so the book. here is all that i remember from my high school reading:
-“scarlet letter” was a slang word that we started to use to describe slutty girls (yeah i was a geek in high school). there was one girl in particular that was “scarlet r” for reasons that i can’t remember now.
-pearl was referenced as the pearl of great price. i remember this fact from my days as a mormon. there is a book of scripture known as the pearl of great price. i never really read my scriptures like i should have, but i think the pearl of great price offered life advice but in the form of actual advice not like analogies or parables. i think the whole no caffeine thing is in that book.
here is what i got out of it as an adult:
first of all, i didn't understand why hester and dimmesdale didn't think up the whole plot to run away together earlier in the story. america wasn't even america yet, it would have been easy for them to start a new life with new identities when they first discovered that she was with child. then "the scarlet letter" would have been their tale of embarking on a new world as parents, which sadly is the premise for "teen mom" . . . nevermind. but the runaway scenario could never an option because then hawthorne's characters would be cowards and would not uphold the moral of this novel: take responsibility of your actions and suffer whatever consequences may result from them. one needs to own up to what he/she has done, lie in the bed they made, handle their sh*t. hester didn't try to deny her actions or escape her punishment. she didn't downplay her scarlet letter but "fantastically embroidered [it] with gold thread" nor did she try to hide her bastard child but pretty much put pearl on display by putting her in "fanciful" attire. hester embraced her punishment, she didn't try to deny her sin and was a better person for it. she lived as madonna sought at the end of "human nature" with "absolutely no regrets." so i guess in this sense, i will have to add hester prynne to my amazing fictional women canon. i don't know why i never gave her this label in high school, it could be because i didn't realize how much strength it takes to survive being ostracize by society and then having the man you are in love with deny the fact that he impregnated you and then having to raise your nymph-like bastard child on your own and on top of that your creepy husband coming back to haunt you. i blame cliffnotes, they didn't give me all of this insight.
as an adult, "the scarlet letter" also gave me insight by contextualizing one critique i had of my mormon faith. i was raised mormon but as i learned in history 4, a history of religion course i took at UCLA, the problem i had/have with mormonism (LDS-ism) can be found in all judeo-christian religions, so i am not attacking the mormon faith just relaying my experience. (there are two reasons why i lost faith as a mormon or any other religion for that matter. but it will not be discuss in this post. ps the following critique is not one of those two reasons).
the issue was the utilization of peer pressure to ensure my faithfulness as a member of the church.* i now recognize the pressure that was applied to me by fellow members to live a certain life. there was always a push towards being upright and if you sin, in theory god is forgiving but you should never get to that point. and maybe i was just extremely naive (this might just be the case) but i really believed everyone around me was spotless just like god or jesus because this is what was projected to me. i felt like everyone was doing everything right and that i needed to get my act together to be like them. and i realize that no one meant any harm by trying to get me into heaven. its actually is quite nice of them. but at some point this whole notion of being your brother's keeper can be dangerous. when you begin to feel responsible for someone else's salvation as a means to save yourself, this is when problems start. this is when religion gets scary; when we want others to live according to what we perceive as right.
and who is to say that those with authority know what is going on? and that is what dimmesdale proved. here is a man of god who sins and does not take the very advice that he gave each week from his pulpit. dimmesdale demonstrates that religion should not be treated as an absolute. those with authority in the church are not innately divined but are human and capable of sin and errors like the rest of us. furthermore hester gives light to this discrepancy because the one that was labelled as the sinner by the church and society ultimately was the most christ-like.
also this is not an anti-religion rant, just some thoughts. like i addressed early the above was my personal experience, i know plenty of happy mormons so i am prolly the exception versus the rule.
so you may be wondering, should i reread this? if you have the time yes. but if not there are better classics. i mean hester prynne is a great character but her story isn't too much of a page turner.
also would like to explain a feature of all of my entries which will be my favorite quotes from the works.
favorite quotes:
"my heart was a habitation large enough for many guests, but lonely and chill, and without a household fire."
*sidenote: all judeo-christian faiths are guilty of this because they are community forming religions. and as a result of being a community, the members inadvertently become responsible for the salvation of each other. this is what prof bartchy taught me in history 4.
here is what i got out of it as an adult:
first of all, i didn't understand why hester and dimmesdale didn't think up the whole plot to run away together earlier in the story. america wasn't even america yet, it would have been easy for them to start a new life with new identities when they first discovered that she was with child. then "the scarlet letter" would have been their tale of embarking on a new world as parents, which sadly is the premise for "teen mom" . . . nevermind. but the runaway scenario could never an option because then hawthorne's characters would be cowards and would not uphold the moral of this novel: take responsibility of your actions and suffer whatever consequences may result from them. one needs to own up to what he/she has done, lie in the bed they made, handle their sh*t. hester didn't try to deny her actions or escape her punishment. she didn't downplay her scarlet letter but "fantastically embroidered [it] with gold thread" nor did she try to hide her bastard child but pretty much put pearl on display by putting her in "fanciful" attire. hester embraced her punishment, she didn't try to deny her sin and was a better person for it. she lived as madonna sought at the end of "human nature" with "absolutely no regrets." so i guess in this sense, i will have to add hester prynne to my amazing fictional women canon. i don't know why i never gave her this label in high school, it could be because i didn't realize how much strength it takes to survive being ostracize by society and then having the man you are in love with deny the fact that he impregnated you and then having to raise your nymph-like bastard child on your own and on top of that your creepy husband coming back to haunt you. i blame cliffnotes, they didn't give me all of this insight.
as an adult, "the scarlet letter" also gave me insight by contextualizing one critique i had of my mormon faith. i was raised mormon but as i learned in history 4, a history of religion course i took at UCLA, the problem i had/have with mormonism (LDS-ism) can be found in all judeo-christian religions, so i am not attacking the mormon faith just relaying my experience. (there are two reasons why i lost faith as a mormon or any other religion for that matter. but it will not be discuss in this post. ps the following critique is not one of those two reasons).
the issue was the utilization of peer pressure to ensure my faithfulness as a member of the church.* i now recognize the pressure that was applied to me by fellow members to live a certain life. there was always a push towards being upright and if you sin, in theory god is forgiving but you should never get to that point. and maybe i was just extremely naive (this might just be the case) but i really believed everyone around me was spotless just like god or jesus because this is what was projected to me. i felt like everyone was doing everything right and that i needed to get my act together to be like them. and i realize that no one meant any harm by trying to get me into heaven. its actually is quite nice of them. but at some point this whole notion of being your brother's keeper can be dangerous. when you begin to feel responsible for someone else's salvation as a means to save yourself, this is when problems start. this is when religion gets scary; when we want others to live according to what we perceive as right.
and who is to say that those with authority know what is going on? and that is what dimmesdale proved. here is a man of god who sins and does not take the very advice that he gave each week from his pulpit. dimmesdale demonstrates that religion should not be treated as an absolute. those with authority in the church are not innately divined but are human and capable of sin and errors like the rest of us. furthermore hester gives light to this discrepancy because the one that was labelled as the sinner by the church and society ultimately was the most christ-like.
also this is not an anti-religion rant, just some thoughts. like i addressed early the above was my personal experience, i know plenty of happy mormons so i am prolly the exception versus the rule.
so you may be wondering, should i reread this? if you have the time yes. but if not there are better classics. i mean hester prynne is a great character but her story isn't too much of a page turner.
also would like to explain a feature of all of my entries which will be my favorite quotes from the works.
favorite quotes:
"my heart was a habitation large enough for many guests, but lonely and chill, and without a household fire."
*sidenote: all judeo-christian faiths are guilty of this because they are community forming religions. and as a result of being a community, the members inadvertently become responsible for the salvation of each other. this is what prof bartchy taught me in history 4.
