P5+TMcClanahan

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Much of the literature that is, today, considered ‘great’ was not written only to tell a story. Often, they allude to another topic or issue that is prevalent in the time of the author. Such allusions can be found in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, in which the recurring motif of cyclical transgression, shame, repentance, and acceptance is used to explore the nation’s national identity relating to individualism. The cycle consists of the societal transgression of adultery, followed by the spurning of the individual and subsequent growth of that individual, and finally, society’s acceptance of the new individual back into the community as is.

In the society explored in the novel, conformity was key. One was accepted in society if one were as everyone thinks and does the same, there would be no reason for rebellion. Hester and her partner break the code of the community, and she is shunned, now and individual. On the national level, around the time of Hawthorne, there was a rift dividing the nation along the fated Mason-Dixon line. The issue was slavery. This national transgression be a related to Hester’s sin through viewing it as a breakdown of morals (as slavery was seen as in the Northern states). However, Hawthorne sets up hope for Hester as he sees hope for the nation still finding its footing.

After her incarceration and public confession, Hester was shamed and outcast by the town. The community saw her as impure and not one to have relations with. She is now an individual against her society. While in the predicament the United States was facing was not an individual but a group of states, those states were put in a position to have to separate from the community to survive. But, while neglected by the town, in her cottage in the woods, Hester grew as an individual. Eh was no longer confined to what everyone else thought, but she was in control of her life. She understood her transgression and was learning from it, making her more and more different form the community which had outcast her. While she is a very dynamic character, the town of Boston remains stagnant.

Finally, after much time had passed and, for all practical purposes, the townsfolk had forgotten of her sin, she is accepted back into the society as this new, changed soul. She has now completely changed and grown, but her sin would always be with her. While the “A” was what separated her from society, it is now what defines her and makes her unique (something she values). She realizes she could never live anywhere else, because, “…there was a more real life for Hester Prynne…in New England, than in that unknown region…here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence. She had returned…of her own free will…Never afterward did it quit her bosom…ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world’s scorn and bitterness…something to be sorrowed over…looked upon with awe…with reverence, too.” (page 227) Even though her sin (Pearl) was gone, it had become so much of her life, so much changed her that it was she and it was impossible for her to live truthfully without it.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s examination of national identity runs far deeper than only individualism, reaching across to religion, government, and science, which are all intricately woven into The Scarlet Letter through the cycle of transgression, shame, repentance, and acceptance.