In the Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the use of symbols highlights the similarities and differences between the Puritans and today's society. ... The symbols used in this book are the scarlet letter, Pearl, and the rosebush next to the rusted prison door. The scarlet letter was a stigma worn by someone who had committed a sinful act many Puritan settlements. ... Many times during the novel, Hawthorne has the readers wondering if Pearl is "human" or not, and during those moments, Pearl functions as a symbol of an unsolved mystery or crime. ... (p. 47) This says that whi...

• Word Count: 843
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The Scarlet Letter There is much dispute as to whether or not The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, can be a viable document used to understand the 1600s during the time of Puritanism. The many attitudes of Puritan society are presented in such a reality that we can assume, safely, that the commonwealth acted as so, however, to a certain extent. ... Nathaniel Hawthorne tried his hardest to present Puritan society but failed to acknowledge its true reality. ... His genius is then only to be based upon his creative thought and imagination used to vividly bring to life the ...

• Word Count: 1014
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Evidence of this is seen throughout American history, from the Puritan era onward. ... Arthur Miller's The Crucible best illustrates this hypocritical attraction-abhorrence nature of the Puritans. ... With that, almost every woman in town is accused of being a witch, and the cycle continues.43 Another important example of hysterical paranoia from the Puritan era is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This novel does not deal so much with witches as it does with the Black Man, which "is a traditional American name for the Devil."44 In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne co...

• Word Count: 3126
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

During the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a kind of parliament known as the Estates General composed of representatives of the clergy, the nobility and the common people, had met at irregular intervals. ... The reign of terror, the period of greatest chaos during the French Revolution, showed that liberty is not so easy to earn, many lives were sacrificed when trying to reach it. ... Slavery had changed Southern society so much that the North and the South no longer shared enough in common to exist as a single nation. ... Just as the lack of liberty black people suffered durin...

• Word Count: 1603
• Approx Pages: 6