In “The Life of Pi” and “The Scarlet Letter”, religion plays a major role in the story as well as the lives of the main characters, Pi and Hester. Although the religions between books are different with “The Life of Pi” containing Christianity, Hinduism, and Muslim, and “The Scarlet Letter” containing strict Christian beliefs, they all affect the characters in various ways through the entire story. Hester has gone against her religion and is punished for it. Pi on the other hand acknowledges many religions, claiming he “just wants to love God”. In either situation, their faith gets them through an extremely tough encounter. In both stories religion is a major part of their lives. However, while Pi is learning through his religious beliefs and using God as a motive to survive, Hester h...
Pearl is an example of the innocent result of sin. All the kids make fun of Pearl and they disclude her from everything. She never did anything wrong, but everyone treats her like she committed the sin also. Pearl acts out against the children that make fun of her and acts like a crazy child. She cannot control the sins that her parents committed.
A sinful nature is an aspect in man that makes him rebellious against God. Everyone has a sinful nature and it affects every part of us. Sin corrupts the human mind and has consequences for doing wrong in the eyes of the Lord. Every individual on Earth sins, and this is represented in the novel The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale to portray how different people cope with their sin and the consequences of that sin.
the height of a mans shoulders above the street . . . . The unhappy culprit
A sin that is so immoral that mingles with the unadulterated mindset of others is perhaps the worst sinner of them all. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter, should committing the act of adultery with a higher order of the church, be punishable by sinful deeds? But how do you punish someone who has committed adultery? Is the implications of her punishment so impaling that it has ruined her life and the others inflicted? Although Hester may be a sinner and a great one at that, she is not the worst sinner and she has actually benefited from her sins as a person, mindset, and family. Hester is not, by any means, a contrite sinner nor is her innocence reflected upon her daughter Pearl, but in hurting herself and perhaps others, she has actually redeemed herself and her reputation and revealed society’s inner sin and debauchery within human nature.
We are all sinners. Although one may try hard not to sin, all humans eventually succumb at some time or another to sin. While people may not able to avoid the fate which awaits them, the power of free will allows people to decide how they will respond to sin. While some may respond with guilt and regret, others may react with a sense of redemption and a renewed sense of responsibility.
by the Puritans result in a fit of outrage by Pearl. One reason that the
Most people have heard of the Judeo-Christian origin story, starring Adam and Eve, a serpent, eaten fruit, and an angry God. Although the origin story is thousands of years old, there are still parallels that can be found in modern literature, such as in the pages of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathanial Hawthorne. Similar to the origin story, The Scarlet Letter, set in the mid-seventeenth century, describes two Salem, Massachusetts residents, Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and their troubles with sin, guilt, and shame. In the devout town of Salem, Hester and Dimmesdale commit adultery, regarded in Salem as an act comparable to murder, resulting in Hester’s physical shame, the scarlet letter, and Dimmesdale’s emotional shame, because
In the book the Life of Pi by Yann Martel, religion plays an important role in Pi’s life. When on the lifeboat, Pi used his faith as a way to motivate himself to live. Without his religious beliefs, there is no way to guarantee he would have made it off the lifeboat.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is one of the most respected and admired novels of all time. Often criticized for lacking substance and using more elaborate camera work, freely adapted films usually do not follow the original plot line. Following this cliché, Roland Joffe’s version of The Scarlet Letter received an overwhelmingly negative reception. Unrealistic plots and actions are added to the films for added drama; for example, Hester is about to be killed up on the scaffold, when Algonquin members arrive and rescue her. After close analysis, it becomes evident of the amount of work that is put into each, but one must ask, why has the director adapted their own style of depicting the story? How has the story of Hester Prynne been modified? Regarding works, major differences and similarities between the characterization, visual imagery, symbolism, narration and plot, shows how free adaptation is the correct term used.
From the beginning of the novel it is pretty clear that religion is a major issue in the life of Pi Patel. “I have kept up what some people would consider my strange religious practices”(3). However, when the Christian and Islamic faiths are presented to him, he can’t decide which practice he wants to call his own. In fact, he wants to know why can’t he be all three of them. The reason Pi can’t decide on which religious practice he will be ultimately faithful to is because he notice so man similarities in the three of them. Mainly the Christian and Islamic practices. When asked why doesn’t he choose between the three he replies, “I just want to love God” (69). Be that as it may, his faith(s) are soon put to the ultimate test.
Life of Pi begins with an author’s note in which Martel describes being told by the character Mamaji that Pi has “‘a story that will make you believe in God’” (ix). This essentially sets up the basis for the entire theme of the novel. The main character, Pi, claims to practice three religions simultaneously: Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam (Martel 81). Much of Pi’s explanation of his own childhood consists of his own religious journeys. He begins with an explanation of how his aunt introduced him to Hinduism upon ...
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter makes use of Biblical allusions to deepen its treatment of the moral superiority of Hester Prynne. Write an essay that explains how familiarity with the parable of the ‘pearl of great price’ from the book of Matthew helps the reader understand the overall meaning of Hawthorne’s novel. Highlight your thesis and claims in yellow. Staple your notes to the back of the essay.
A theme that can be seen in both ‘A Scarlet Letter’ and ‘The Narrative of Frederick Douglas’ is the abuse of religion and its use as a form of power over others. Both texts present characters that fall victim to the misuse of religion as a form of control and are forced to live with the consequences of this. In both texts religion is used as a form of control, for Hester the villagers use it to punish her and isolate her from society and for Frederick it provides his slave masters with an excuse for his mistreatment.
In Life of Pi, Yann Martel illustrates the main allegory is, religion is the better story because while religion may seem unlikely its not impossible the story without animals is like life without God, and Pi said “and so it goes with God” when the two Japanese men agreed that the first story was the better story. Life of Pi takes place in the pacific ocean when Pi and his family were moving from India to Canada on a cargo ship with all of their zoo animals aboard the ship. In a sudden turn of events the ship sinks and Pi is stranded in the ocean on a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, a tiger, Richard Parker. Pi is later saved when he washes up on the beaches of Mexico.
First of all, religion is a key component in Pi’s survival because it leads Pi to believe that he has to coexist with other creatures and they are all one entity. When Pi struggles with the storm on the lifeboat, he has the opportunity to abandon Richard Parker, but he doesn’t: “I could see his head. He was struggling to stay at the surface of the water. ‘Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you, Richard Parker! Don’t give up, please. Come to the lifeboat. Do you hear this whistle? TREEEEE! TREEEEE! TREEEEE! You heard, right. Swim! Swim!’” (Martel p.121). Although Richard Parker