Chapter 1-3: Summary
The story starts out talking about the history of moving into the new colony of Massachusetts. It concentrates mainly on the aftermath of the witch trials and the extreme religiosity of the puritans. There is talk about the harsh punishments for those who disobey God and the law. The second chapter discusses the reaction of the town folk when a woman named Hester Prynne, walks out of the gallows with a baby in her arms and a red letter "A" embroidered on her breast. This woman has committed Adultery, (hence the capital letter A), and is forced to stand around the marketplace in the village, and show off her shame to everyone. The pious women of the colony believe that Hester's punishment wasn't serious enough for her actions. In the story, it talks about the magistrates giving Hester a misdemeanor instead of death because she supposedly lost her husband at sea and was extremely lonely. The ministers of the church ask the adulterer who the father is, but she refuses to name the culprit who helped her sin against God. This foreshadows that the father has to be someone in the church or a very rich individual. As the story goes on, she looks in the crowd and finds a Native American with a white man who is dressed in traditional native attire. After they have been exchanging looks for long time, the mysterious man asks about the women with the red "A" and the infant. The mysterious man and Hester seem to recognize each other, but I still don't know why. The man is definitely not an inhabitant of this colony because he does not know the actions of the poor Hester Prynne, and must result to listening to rumors. Then Hester was moved back to her prison cell.
In the story, I believe that I can relate a few things to this story. For example, the politics of the today is basing on their issues on religion and other social issues.The issue of religion definitely plays an important issue today in presenting a tiny hatred toward women who believe in premarital sex and use birth control. When I think of Hester and every one of those men and women giving her a terrible name, it makes me sad because you shouldn't think of her as a bad person, even though one time she wasn't very responsible, you should just be glad that she is taking care of the baby and is trying to do her best to raise it.
This book is a prime example of why religion is just plain stupid. It's just teaches people to hate each other. Sure, she made a mistake, but everbody does. Your right, this book has several similarities to the politics and religion of today.
ReplyDeleteAll I can think of when I read the title was the movie Easy A, it made references to this book. I think the man she looked at might have been her husband, wild guess.
ReplyDeleteI have never read the book, I have watched the movie though and I love it!! One of my all time favorite movies to this day.
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