In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne tells the story of a woman named Hester Prynne who has committed the sin of adultery. In committing this sin, she is forced to wear the scarlet letter, A, on her breast. In England, where Hester’s from, she married an elderly scholar named Roger Chillingworth through an arranged marriage. After marrying, to finish up some affairs in Europe, Chillingworth sent Hester to Boston, America, and told her to wait for him there. Hester waited for two years, but her husband never returned. She finally comes to an agreement that he has been killed. Although she was wrong. Her husband had not been killed. He had been shipwrecked and captured by Native Americans. He arrived belatedly in Boston, two years later, and learned that Hester had had an affair with Boston’s young minister, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, which led to the birth of Pearl, their daughter. In The Scarlet Letter, Pearl is said to be the “child of the devil” since she was born to an adulterer. In return for cheating on her husband, Hester, who had been totally unaware that Chillingworth was still alive, is forced to wear the scarlet letter for the rest of her life. Aside from that, after getting out of prison, she is banished to the outskirts of Boston.
During Hester’s punishment, seclusion from society, and life with Pearl, she changes and becomes an original thinker. Why? Throughout the novel, she changes both physically and mentally. In the beginning, though, these were negative changes. Before being called out for adultery, she was a very warm, charming, and passionate young woman. However, once she’s called out for adultery and is forced to wear the scarlet letter, she loses her warmth, charm, and passion. These emotions are replaced by coldness, severity, and drabness. She loses her enthusiasm and now shows only warmth and charm toward her child, Pearl.
Aside from this, society begins to view Hester negatively. Some Puritans believe that she can see right through them and understand their sins. From this belief, she is shunned from society and is forced to live on the outskirts of Boston. For Hester, all seems to be lost.
For many days and nights, wearing the scarlet letter, Hester is filled with a range of torment and fear. She is unaware, though, that these feelings are gradually growing and making her stronger and more intelligent.
At the end of the book, Hester learns from her sin and, as a result of her punishment, becomes a stronger person. Nathaniel Hawthorne tells us this in Chapter 18, A Flood of Sunshine. In A Flood of Sunshine, he says that “The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers—stern and wild ones—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss (Chapter 18, pgs. 183-184).” In modern English, this quote says that Hester has gone down a path in which shame, despair, and solitude were her teachers, allowing her to grow strong and become an original thinker. Although shame, despair, and solitude were her teachers, they had guided her very poorly, like some poor teachers in today’s education, and Hester had to learn this. In the end, she did, and she turned into the strong-willed Hester Prynne, willing to help others and be respected by them. She proved to the world how strong women can be.
Aside from growing strong, Hester also grows wiser. At the end of the book, citizens of Boston come to her and ask her for help and guidance with their own sorrows and problems, even though Hester was never a true Puritan. Although she was never a true Puritan, she always tried to live up to the Puritan code.
All this information brings me to this question. Do you have to commit a crime in order to be an original thinker? I don’t believe so. To become an original thinker, in my opinion, you have to overcome something, whether something big or something strong, but you do not have to commit a crime. Hester in The Scarlet Letter learned to become an original thinker by committing adultery and wearing the scarlet letter, yes, but it doesn’t mean that that’s the only way to become one.
To become an original thinker, you have to “learn from your mistakes” and overcome a great challenge, as Hester did in The Scarlet Letter, but she learned in a different way. She learned by wearing the scarlet letter. People can learn to overcome a great challenge and learn from their mistakes for a bunch of other reasons, aside from Hester’s. An example of this would be learning how to remain confident when you fall off a horse. From experience, whenever I fall off a horse, sometimes I feel the same way Hester does in terms of thinking all is lost, and I can’t bring myself to try to give it a second chance. In The Scarlet Letter, for wearing the letter, Hester didn’t think life could give her a second chance. However, as the story progressed, she learned she had to take a second chance in life and start over. I’m like this with horseback riding. Unlike Hester, it usually doesn’t take me all that long to give in for a second chance, but I still do it. In return, I learn how to become a stronger rider and a stronger person. I believe I, too, can become an original thinker. Hester learns things very much as I do, so I can relate to her and what she has to go through.
To answer the question… No, you do not have to commit a crime to become an original thinker. You just have to be yourself. Don’t listen to all those bozos out there saying that you can’t accomplish something and start a new life when you know you can. Everybody in the world can be successful and become an original thinker, and this doesn’t have to happen by committing a crime. I learned this through horseback riding. Hester learned this through wearing the scarlet letter and understanding the true meaning of life and how God can help you accomplish what you want, and no, you do not have to commit a crime in order for Him to trust you and give you another chance. As mentioned before, you just have to be yourself.
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