... said by St. Augustine, regarding immorality. This is discovered to be very true by the main characters in The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne's story of a woman (Hester) who lives with the Puritans and commits adultery with the local minister (Dimmesdale). In his novel, Hawthorne shows that sin, ... and different. She wears her scarlet letter among the solemnly dressed Puritans as this rosebush wears its scarlet blossoms amidst a small plot of grass and weeds. They both stand separate from their surroundings. Later in the book we hear a conversation between Dimmesdale and Roger Chil...

• Word Count: 1118
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... is perhaps best known for his essays, from which emerge the grounding notions of Transcendentalism. Henry David Thoreau Best known for his work "Walden," Thoreau presents an exploration of self-discipline and self-discovery which resonates significantly through American literature. Walt Whitman Whitman's poem, "Song of Myself," from "Leaves of Grass" is often considered the most stunningly original poem ever written by an American ... . Leaves of Grass was inspired largely by Emerson's writings, and in particular his essay "The Poet ... ...

• Word Count: 917
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Puritan society condemns. Hawthorne even suggests that Pearl was plucked from the rosebush, referring to her wild nature and the fact that she exists "outside" of the Puritan code. Dimmesdale's emotionally depressed state is captured in an image of "his grave, he questioned with himself whether the grass would ever grow on it, because an accursed thing must there be buried" (106). Here ... , grass represents goodness and life, and because of his own sin, he does not believe that nature will reflect his positive accomplishments when he dies. Dead foliage also helps to represent the mindse...

• Word Count: 1017
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... must be sung, that will sing themselves (13) It was this speech that sparked a period of creative energy, producing some of the greatest works of all time. Such works include, Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Henry David Thoreau's Walden, the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Edgar Allan Poe's short stories (Hurley 13, 15). Each American romantic adopted ... his own style and theme. However, all were unified by a common concern with the internal world, the world of the mind. Examining questions of human identity, ima...

• Word Count: 319
• Approx Pages: 1