Scarlet Letter Rebellion Vs Rebellion

Historical abolitionist Frederick Douglas famously once said “The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.” Rebellion only happens because a group of individuals is dissatisfied with authority. Without this conflict between society and authority, humanity will not advance. Many conflicts occur frequently, but what is the frequency of individuals rebelling against authority? Some may choose to believe that this conflict is a rare occurrence, while many authors throughout history may believe that rebellion occurs more often than one might think. Rebellions against society can all be refined down to a rebellious action, a reason for rebellion, and a response from authority. A rebellious action can come in all sorts of different

People rebel against leadership in their own ways, and for their own reasons. American author Henry David Thoreau wrote in his famous work Walden, “Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away,” (Thoreau Line 225). Thoreau wrote this passage in order to inform his readers that society should not judge people for rebelling against authority. On the contrary, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter represents how Hawthorne believes that rebellious people should be punished and should be recognized as rebels. The main character of The Scarlet Letter was charged with adultery, and was eventually forced to wear a scarlet letter “A,” which would mark her as adulterous for the rest of her life. Both of these authors had opposing views on the reasons for rebellion. Thoreau believed that rebellion was caused because a person could not follow the societal norms of the time, while Hawthorn believed that people rebelled because they could. An example of people rebelling just because they can is an example of why many of today’s teenagers disobey their parents’ best interests, much like Christopher McCandless from Into The

You’ll do more than guess! You’ll get him a uniform this instant. Mr. Washington, or spend the next two weeks working on Geriatrics Ward! Yes. You may need a month of bedpans and slab baths to refresh your appreciation of just how little work you aides have to do on this ward,” (Kesey 98). This is a great example of a reaction to a rebellion from authority, as is how the clergy forces the main character to wear the scarlet letter in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. In both cases, there is an opposite reaction to rebellion, yet both reactions are different. Nurse Ratched gets furious and yells at her staff, while the clergy simply publicly shame the adulterous main character. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ken Kesey both know that their character’s rebellions must be met with equal resistance from authority, and there is a great elaboration on this subject in multiple points in both author’s