Elizabeth Killian-KeupMs.AmatoEnglish IIDecember 7, 2017Open Hearts“Show freely to the world, if not (their) worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred” a quote written by Hawthorne in his famous classic, the Scarlet Letter. Isn’t it funny? How, something written in the year of 1850, can still teach us about our lives today? In our day and age, people work so hard to protect and shield their hearts, yet is that truly the best thing to do? An open heart affects your whole life, and yet most people don't understand the importance of a pure and open heart. Having an open heart affects your character, your perspective, and how you handle things.In the bible, God tells us that above all you should guard your heart, yet people confuse …show more content…
Sadly most parents these days are failing at taking up that responsibility. It’s a lost art, yet there are people who have hearts as wide and as open as a golden gate. Open hearts are hard to find. Finding a role model that has their heart in the right place can be a true challenge as well. For example, look at our government; they certainly don’t have any openness in their hearts, except for a few people who surprise the public. The government of the Unites States has trouble with the truth, and yet we pride ourselves for being upright and honest. Of course, compared to other countries we are so much more ethical with our justice system. Yet in this country we have deceit, betrayal, and these people hide their true selves. They’re scared because they think that if they show weakness or flaw for any sort, that people will think lesser of them and create rumors. The United States was made off of the idea of truth, justice, and freedom. Nonetheless, we still hide parts of ourselves for fear of judgment, even if some of us understand that the one and only Lord give the real judgment that matters.Some people might say that if they open their full hearts to the world, that they will get hurt easier. And that’s a very good point. It’s a valid reasoning, yet that’s where guarding your heart comes into play. Guarding your heart and closing it off are very …show more content…
Because remember that this is a sinful world and either way you will get hurt. Closing off your heart is when you have basically an iron lock on your heart. It numbs it. And in a way, it destroys it. You see, your heart is a living, part of you. And God is your nourishment and he basically pours life into you, using the Holy Spirit. Now, cutting off that life and that nourishment causes your heart to Harden and shrivel up inside you. And suddenly your spirit becomes trapped inside the void of worldliness, consisting of depression, isolation, and self hate. Keep in mind, that isolation is the Devil’s playground because as soon as you become isolated, you have no outlet. You have no one to pull you out of that place. You have no sense of how far into darkness your drifting. And that’s where it becomes dangerous. Because all of that hurt. All of that bitterness gets bottled up inside you. Soon, only God and release your heart from that bitterness and hurt. Once you do it changes your life forever.Hearts affect every single aspect in your life and it affects the people around you, the more open and honest your heart is, the better the outcome. Because as soon as you open your heart to him it changes everything. Perspective. Emotional health. Mental health. Your faith. How you approach this broken world. Everything relies on where your heart is
In Arthur Cleveland Coxe’s review of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he repeatedly criticizes the novel and expresses his moral disapproval for the story. Distinctively, Coxe argues that lying is made out to be a worse sin than adultery, that Hawthorne intends for the evil-doing characters to stand out and be specifically fascinating, and that the novel overall is entirely rude in that it attempts to accumulate pity for the sinners. Taken as a whole, Coxe feels that the novel challenges ethics which he and his fellow-church-goers have been holding true for hundreds of years. I mostly disagree, but there is some truth in his statements.
Beginning with the very first words of The Scarlet Letter the reader is thrust into a bleak and unforgiving setting. “A thong of bearded men, in sad-colored garments,” that are said to be “intermixed with women,” come off as overpowering and all-encompassing; Hawthorne quickly and clearly establishes who will be holding the power in this story: the males (Hawthorne 45). And he goes even further with his use of imagery, painting an even more vivid picture in the reader’s mind. One imagines a sea of drab grays and browns, further reinforcing the unwelcoming feeling this atmosphere seems to inheren...
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, everyone had some form of a secret they’d rather not share, but sometimes not telling can do more harm than good. At the end of the film, Hawthorne left us a quote saying, “Be true, be true, be true.” Hawthorne is trying to say keeping secrets isn't always the best because it only leads to someone getting hurt.
Hawthorne, J. (1886, April). “The Scarlet Letter.” The Atlantic Monthly [On-line], pp. 1-20. Available: http://wwww.theatlantic.com/unbound/classrev/scarlet.html
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter silhouettes the human experience as being intricately woven with equal parts loving bliss and guilty anguish. He describes, from different characters’ perspectives, that only through one does the other have meaning. That living is a sensation fully encountered exclusively from naked emotion which is tended toward, the liberty to articulate those truths, and solidarity. Pearl becomes the embodiment of the former, who is described from the very beginning as an unearthly “creature”, the second by Arthur Dimmesdale, slowly killed by his secret sin, and the latter by both as they discover the lawless triumph of pleasure and pain. Over the course of the novel’s
The man Nathaniel Hawthorne, an author of the nineteenth century, was born in 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts. It was there that he lived a poverty-stricken childhood without the financial support of a father, because he had passed away in 1808. Hawthorne was raised strictly Puritan, his great-grandfather had even been one of the judges in the Puritan witchcraft trials during the 1600s. This and Hawthorne’s destitute upbringing advanced his understanding of human nature and distress felt by social, religious, and economic inequities. Hawthorne was a private individual who fancied solitude with family friends. He was also very devoted to his craft of writing. Hawthorne observed the decay of Puritanism with opposition; believing that is was a man’s responsibility to pursue the highest truth and possessed a strong moral sense. These aspects of Hawthorne’s philosophy are what drove him to write about and even become a part of an experiment in social reform, in a utopian colony at Brook Farm. He believed that the Puritans’ obsession with original sin and their ironhandedness undermined instead of reinforced virtue. As a technician, Hawthorne’s style in literature was abundantly allegorical, using the characters and plot to acquire a connection and to show a moral lesson. His definition of romanticism was writing to show truths, which need not relate to history or reality. Human frailty and sorrow were the romantic topics, which Hawthorne focused on most, using them to finesse his characters and setting to exalt good and illustrate the horrors of immorality. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s experiences as a man, incite as a philosopher and skill as a technician can be seen when reading The Scarlet Letter.
...th (Colacurcio 286, 312). Hawthorne emphasizes the reality of the Puritanism world and that even though all of these people were good
In the novel The Scarlet Letter and the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Nathaniel Hawthorne incorporates romantic elements, such as beauty, truth, innocence, and sin, in his criticism of Puritan societies. In both texts, Hawthorne argues that all people, even those in strictly religious societies with corrupted standards, are capable of sin. Hawthorne uses symbolism and light and dark imagery to convey his argument.
Nathanial Hawthorne, an American author during the 19th century witnessed the power of sin to wreak havoc not only to an individual but a whole community. His novel The Scarlet Letter expresses this very idea by exposing the follies of mankind and the potentially detrimental effects of sin trough Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth who all affected by sin in different ways. Utilizing powerful symbols and light/dark imagery, Hawthorne conveys to the readers, through these characters, the power of how one’s response to sin can positively change an individual or gradually destroy one by spreading like a contagious disease and ultimately consuming the victim.
Failure to respect God's standards often roots obscurity in recognizing one's own sins. For this reason, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempts to maintain a dark and truthful view of mankind, his romantic historical fiction novel; The Scarlet Letter reveals both the author and man's common struggle to discern the difference between Civil and Natural Law, the means by which they deceive themselves, justify their actions, and seek redemption. Not to mention, the setting impacts the evolution of the plot dramatically as certain bold individuals take on the role of romantic heroes, fighting the Puritan Utopia in both a proper and improper manner. Consequently, a recurring theme is continually developed as transcendentalists view man as inherently good and Hawthorne exposes the reality of man’s wickedness. However, Hawthorne's conflicting views of human nature are clearly evident as he both sympathizes and rebukes the transgressions of the Puritan society though each of four main characters.
"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally becoming bewildered as to which may be true”. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, this quote applies to the two main characters of the novel. It applies to Arthur Dimmesdale in a literal way; he clearly is not the man that he appears to be, and the guilt that goes along with such deception consumes his entire life. The quote also applies to Hester Prynne, but in quite a different way because it was not her choice to wear the “face” that she was forced to wear. The mark of the scarlet letter on her bosom determined how others perceived her and, in turn, how she was expected to perceive herself. At first, Hester did not consider the sin that she committed as blasphemous and horrible as the people of Boston did, but she was forced to wear the “face” of a sinner.
Hawthorne not only displays excellent characterization, symbolism, and irony, but he also exhibits a good message for all. The characters (not including the antagonist) all learned valuable lessons. Hawthorne’s symbolism proved that there are deeper meanings to things than one might expect. The irony of the story pulls it all together. Hawthorne’s creative uses of all three of these elements, characterization, symbolism, and irony, make The Scarlet Letter, a must-read novel.
...ame about as a notebook that Hawthorne had written during his mother’s death. That is actually one of the main reasons that The Scarlet Letter is filled with such emotion. Hawthorne also believed he needed to revitalize American literature as in this next quote. “Choosing adultery as the sin to which the Puritans were to react, and in so doing, according to some of his moralistic critics, "Frenchifying" American literature…” (American Studies @ Virginia paragraph 21) Henry James said "the book was the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in this country."
One may find, after having read the novel, that it's better to confess your sin rather than conceal it, although it may not be good for your reputation in the community, it's better for your soul. Throughout the novel, the characters suffered the consequences for their sins. As a result, the theme of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, could be the consequences of sin.
The first responsibility that I think is very important is being a good example for your kids. Parents are examples for their kids whether they like it or not. My boys watch and copy everything that I do, and even if I don’t think their listening they are listening. If they see me finishing school and working a good job that’s what they will expect to do themselves because that is all that they know. Children are like sponges. I want to show my kids how to be a good person by being a good person myself. As a parent I want my children to know that they can be anything they want to be, but at the same time I am controlling their physical and moral environment so that they can be good people. I want them to be in an environment where they can develop habits of honesty, generosity, and responsibility.