Comparing The Scarlet Letter and The Scarlet Letter and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

A work of literature may be defined as a classic because it

promotes deep insight into human behavior. Both The Scarlet Letter, by

Nathaniel Hawthorne, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey give

a reader a complete understanding of what is going on inside of the heads

of the characters. This insight into the characters can be used as a

general insight into human behavior. One insight is that a person's

physical abilities can be controlled by their mental awareness and stat e

of being. Another is that they see themselves in relation to those around

them.

In The Scarlet Letter, a reader is presented with the feelings of

Chillingworth, Hester's (the main character) husband, and Dimmesdale

(Hester's partner in adultry), as they are destroyed mentally as well as

physically. Chillingworth is afraid of being dishonored by being known as

the husband of a whore. He also wants revenge on Dimmesdale for corrupting

Hester. His thoughts are read by the reader, and his actions represent the

fiendish ways that have overcome him. The way he torment s Dimmesdale is

seen when he acts as his physician. Chillingworth knows that Dimmesdale

was the father of Pearl, Hester's daughter. But he wants to torment and

take revenge on the Reverend Dimmesdale, who suddenly became sick.

Chillingworth uses his knowledge of the human mind and of medicine to

deduce that Dimmesdale's sickness lay not in his body, but in his mind: He

was holding a secret, a deep, dark, secret, that was destroying him. By

asking Dimmesdale if he were hiding somet...

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...ave realized that people sometimes

seem different because of the power or freedom that they hold. He may have

known that they saw themselves only relative to others around them. It is

possible that he expre ssed these ideas in his book, using the Chief and

McMurphy as his subjects in the situations previously described.

If a work of literature shows deep insight into human behavior, as

do The Scarlet Letter and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, then that work

can be considered a classic, as Hawthorne's and Kesey's are. The major

insight in common is that bot h authors realized that mental and physical

conditions are interrelated and depend upon each other. Also, Kesey showed

how a person sees things in perspective to things around him or her.