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The Scarlet Letter

 

            One of the recurring themes is the story of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is that of identity and society. After Hester is publicly shamed and forced by the people of Boston to wear a badge of humiliation, her unwillingness to leave the town may seem puzzling. She is not physically imprisoned, and leaving the colony would allow her to remove the scarlet letter and resume a normal life elsewhere. So why does Hester choose to stay in a place were she will constantly be reminded my by her past action and "sin?- .
             Most of us today, let society determine our identity. We are constantly behaving or even acting in a way that we want society to perceive us. I believe the world we live in today is guided by a set of rules which society has put there for us to follow. Our actions are no longer natural or of our choice, we behave in a way which coincide with the rules of society and therefore abandoning our true identity and adopting that of society. This can be compared to a kind a "cave,"" we are puppets in a cave, or actors in a play, all playing our roles, the role assigned to us by society. We see is the illusions that society and its leaders create for us, and unable to think freely we accept these illusions as reality. Very few of us have the strength and courage to step out of this cave, step out of the role assigned to us and let our experiences decide who we really are.
             One of Hawthorne's underlying message is in the Scarlet letter is that, as human beings we are capable of sins and from these sins we learn and gain valuable experience leading to knowledge. This is idea is similar to the Aristotle's idea that true knowledge is gained from experience, but only if we are brave enough to confront our sins openly and not allow society to judge us but accepting our sins and actions as part of who we are. I believe that Hawthorne, understanding the control and power of society over one's life and identity, created a character in Hester who defies the rules which society, and is strong enough to confront society, step out of her cave, and in doing so determines her own identity, rather than to allow others to determine it for her.


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