Friday, October 30, 2009
A Flood of Sunshine
For my essay, i want to write about Hawthorne's value of nature throughout the scarlet letter. I am going to use a paragraph (p.178) from the chapter "a flood of sunshine", which describes pearl and connecting with nature. Throughout the book Pearl is known as a little terror devil child, but in this chapter she is highlighted as sweet and caring. I am going to show how society views the way nature is, and how it really is, especially with pariahs like Pearl. In society they think she is a terrible child and she acts out and screams, but then when she goes into nature which is supposedly the "dark place" she is a sweet little girl. I will also show how pearl with humans in the town she is very rude and mean towards them, but then when a wolf comes up to her, which to humans is considered a dangerous creature, he offers her his head and she gives it a pat. I will also talk about when Pearl gathers the flowers up and makes herself a crown and decorates her waste, while in nature. But whenever she was in the grave yard with her mother with others watching she plucked the flowers and threw them at her mom. And lastly i am going to point out how happy Pearl is in the forest, until she realizes Reverend Dimmesdale, a part of society is around. That is my basic idea of what i am going to write but it is also subject to change a little.
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Compare pearl to Emerson/Whitman/Thoraeu in the way nature almost complements her and she it "in one with nature". Or don't...I don't really care.
ReplyDeletethis seems interesting... i never really thought of it this way so as far as suggestions go..... i dno.
ReplyDeleteLillian,
ReplyDeleteAs I said during our conversation on Friday, your best approach is to USE the passage--let it structure your response. Feel free to range around the rest of the novel (for example, when you cite the passage about "the dark forest" you can then refer to other instances (Mistress Hibbins' comments, say) when the forest is referred to as 'Satan's playground'--as opposed to the "natural" refuge that here embraces Pearl). The first thing to do is to read through this passage several times, mark it up and figure out which words and phrases you are going to cite directly (you certainly don't need to reproduce the entire passage). Then, as you consider what you've highlighted, think about what connections you can make between those words, and language used elsewhere in the text.
I look forward to reading your first draft!