The rest of this book

Damn anticlimatic and longer than it needed to be.

 After chapter 9 I said this man chillingsworth is super stoop. Someone must have used leeches to remove his sanity. Reminds me of an idealized doctor of Ms. Hill(s.o. to April, Paul, and Brenda).

In Chapter ten I realize what I later found to be the most important piece on information in the book:
 The black man referenced in the book is not

Your's TRU(tm of 2chainz/Pail)ly

but 

THE DEVIL

Handsome Devil

You can stop reading here.

...

In the first read of Chapter 10 I thought dimm and chillingsworth had..uh..lit the dark plant and that was what caused them to see Pearl outside. However, that probably wouldn't have fit into the way the story was written and made much sense since as far as I know Puritans weren't lightin any L's. It made more sense that she was actually outside the window but I'm curious as to why she wasn't home.

The high preist..badum..

I think Dimmesdale is awfully horrible at playing down a situation. He makes it obviously visible that he is uncomfortable and leaving the room after/during a conversation is no helper in concealing your feelings on a matter. I would say it was dumb but he's letting some strange fat old man be his nurse so..no surprise. He seemed like this from the start..when Hester was in the town square or whatever.

Dimmesdale preaching in chapter 11 made me want to jump a few pages ahead. Sure something important cold have been said, or like in the book, he could have given an inspired sermon. He won't have much leverage on Pearl in terms of moral integrity and teaching values once she gets older. The reverend's sermon in Chapter 12 and ramblings about Pearl and Armageddon lead me to believe they did actually light that dark plant. Man o man.

Need some IcyHot for that chest pain dimmesdale?

I didn't like the rest of the book, or much of the beginning for that matter. It peaked in chapter 8, and the decline was rapid. Hester's character doesn't develop much and I don't get to read about her as much as I'd like. I disliked how the story started with her and what she was going through and then went on to Dimmesdale's probs and the desires of the probing chillingsworth to approve the assumption's he had. THere's more development of Pearl than there is of hester and the world she knows of that surrounds her. interestingly enough, that could have been intended since Pearl was stressed as a living symbol of the scarlet letter, so the title could be a reference to her. I still think the book is poorly organized in character concentration. It was a bit disjointed to me. I didn't care at all about Pearl as I didn't find her interesting.  I second Sam's comment /comparison of hester to the ol girl from twilight, A bit undeveloped and the only side we see is the one that revolves around this situation of being a baby mama(although we get a glimpse of her embroidery skills early on in the book).

One thing I thought about after finishing this book was that I would much rather had the story line shifted backwards to the points leading up to hester and rev d smanging it. Like I said before I thought this dragged on for quite some time. That is probably due to the wack ending of everything turning out wonderfully!!!11!1

My take away from the book: burn it.

This video describes(loosely) how I see the rev trying to get all preachy(on anything including moral integrity and values, like I stated above) with hester and pearl anytime in the future.

The womans stomach is rev d's wrong doing, and seinfield and larry david(white old man) represent hester and pearl respectively.

Enjoy

These Puritan Children Speak Well: The Scarlett Letter Chapters 7-8

Hello again. My last post on this book will be a lengthy one by default so tune in at the end of the week to read it. It shall be a big shibang of sorts.

For those reluctant to read the book, I would recommend finding a free audiobook version like the librivox(sp) ones on youtube, although the one with the big red a in the video(which I am not listening to) is read by a man with a nasally voice. Avoid those videos.

These were chapters I enjoyed going through and thinking about.

I still think these townspeople are stupid and weird when it comes to relinquishing the "custody" Hester has of her child in addition to the rest of the demon-child conversations that seem to be recurring. I don't expect much else though.

Pearl to me,unlike what many of you are saying, seems like a normal child to me. For example, when the children with good grammar try to throw mud at Hester and "the likeness of the Scarlet Letter", she retaliates by screaming and charging them. It works, as the children flee (avoiding confrontation, being pussies, etc..can I say pussies on here?). It's interesting to me that they flee as if they did not expect any sort of confrontation from the two females. Walking down a road is not like standing up in front of the town with a letter on your chest to be attacked. That road is a reasonable fighting ground.

Pearl?

When the two arrive at the reverend's place and Pearl points out the reflection in the armor. I laughed. In my own life things I believe other people find significant about me but that I find to be trivial are often highlighted or become more observable in silly ways such as a distorted reflection. Most of the time, I laugh at it, as I did here. However if it was something I was constantly mistreated for like Hester, I would..err. probably not find it so humorous (we could probably think of a few things if we rewound time a few decades, placed me in a town or two over, or look around enough at what happens in our own school).

This chapter also had a few funny moments. One was Hester's recollection of what her husband used to be and her comparative description of him now, as a "misshapen" man who has become much uglier. She may have also been thinking that he would be better of in the sea instead of on land where eyes have a greater chance of settling on him. Another was when Pearl ran to the ledge and said her mother picked her from a rose bush one day.

At the end of the chapter, in the exchange of actions between Pearl and Dimmesdale, I had a greater suspicion than before that Dimmesdale is the father. She, at such a young age, is still in tune(or relying on rather) her instinct/intuition, and she went to Dimmesdale after rejecting grimy old Wilson. Rev. Dimmesdale had some kind words for the child(whom I think he co-smanged into existence).

Sacrilege, but sweet.

P.S.: What's up with Hobbin's?

The Scarlet Letter Chapters 4-6

*This will be edited and expanded further in the upcoming days*
Chapter 4
This chapter, I hope, is a sign that the book will become progressively more interesting. Chapter four was far better to me than the previous three but to be fair it was only the first 3 chapters.  In the middle of reading it I said, "Wooooooooooooah Hester was married to the physician?" but alas I remembered she was previously married so this "physician" was her husband. Well well well. Aside from his percieved inadequacies as a husband or rather objective honesty, he seemed lame to me. If he felt so strongly that he was not fit for Hester as a husband(objectively), I don't think he would revel in his curiosity so much as to take up a detective case to find the man who was smashin while he was away. I can understand what he's doing though, as this is/was his life, his current wife, and the 1600's when not much else is going on in that town(or neighboring ones for that matter). I can understand that the man is upset that the woman who made vows bore the child of another man as if they were non existent. That's cold, but for some reason unsurprising. If he wishes to find the man who accompanied her in adultery, I would hope he does not have the same chances of doing so as he will in his quest of being a successful alchemist. That would surely be disappointing for him.

Her husband is a walking ghost of sorts, since he is perceived to be dead yet he is alive and has taken up a new identity. This identity is birthed from the perception of his death and the new reality he is living in where his wife is an outcast for having committed adultery. An unfortunate life to live in a Puritan town in the early 1600's.

Chapter 5:
"On the outskirts of the town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage. It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned, because the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its comparative remoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity which already marked the habits of the emigrants. It stood on the shore, looking across a basin of the sea at the forest-covered hills, towards the west. A clump of scrubby trees, such as alone grew on the peninsula, did not so much conceal the cottage from view, as seem to denote that here was some object which would fain have been, or at least ought to be, concealed. In this little lonesome dwelling, with some slender means that she possessed, and by the licence of the magistrates, who still kept an inquisitorial watch over her, Hester established herself, with her infant child. A mystic shadow of suspicion immediately attached itself to the spot. Children, too young to comprehend wherefore this woman should be shut out from the sphere of human charities, would creep nigh enough to behold her plying her needle at the cottage-window, or standing in the doorway, or labouring in her little garden, or coming forth along the pathway that led townward, and, discerning the scarlet letter on her breast, would scamper off with a strange contagious fear."

This sounds like a nice life, for her at least. Chapter 5 is a nice contrast to the emotion filled chapter before it where her husband was acting like a mad man. We get to see a side of Hester that shows what she does other than being a single mother in a town that continuously heckles her. We even get to see that she has a "refined" taste in garment aesthetics.

In chapter 6 we get to meet the baby (Jeremy John voice). It's strange how parallel the Puritan community in the book is to towns and neighborhoods in our area today. As I was reading I questioned how much sense it made to believe that I child would be "sinful" like her mother when she had no concept of what these "sins" were. It is interesting though, that the children (however naive and foolish they may be) act like their parents (towards Hester anyway) although I'm not convinced that the attitudes and actions come from a place a visceral as their parents'. I also don't think at that age(or any possibly) is a learned social behavior like rudeness or teasing so much so that is justifies mistreatment of a child (Pearl). It seem's like some of these people aren't thinking..

The Scarlett Letter Chapter 1-3

This seems like a pretty cool town since kids are getting time out of school because some woman had a child out of wedlock. We would have half days galore in our town. The first chapter was pretty boring to me. It's important because it sets the scene and describes the environment. I probably find it boring because that is how I few Puritan life.

In chapter two we are told how young shawty Hester Prince swaggers out of the prison with her baby and is heckled. I could make a tongue twister with a few words beginning with h here, like hussy, but I will refrain. I think it should be noted that she was in prison for this and that any future actions of the towns people and others during the time that seem extreme should be viewed as "normal" for the time period. Hester doesn't seem to mind the talk of the housewives and mocking that comes from the children, but nevertheless she is stressed by the reality presented before her. She has a bastard child she must take care of, in addition to her own person. I do not have specifics of her living condition so I wonder if she is living with monetary support from a person, group of people outside of her family, or if she is using money from her husband. There is not much information supplied to the reader as of yet about how she is sustaining her livelihood. I do not feel bad for her in any way. Although I do not agree with the Puritan religious beliefs and the subsequent laws they have set up that (in their opinion) follow it, outside of rape I think Hester knew the laws of that society and by acting outside of them, deserves whatever punishment the society has set for violating said laws. This view remains constant with no regard to how severe (or silly in th this case) the punishment is viewed to be. Standing three hours on a box and getting a varsity letter for having sex doesn't seem like that bad of a punishment, if you are the guy anyway.

I wouldn't mind sporting this although I hope the implication would not be that I gave birth to a child.

 I question what the male punishment for the crime of sex(or is it specifically producing a child?) out of wedlock is.  I think a much more harsh punishment would be to brand the person with the letter A. I think the pain of the act and the scarring of the body would be a lot more difficult to ignore and dismiss contemplation of than a condemned varsity letter.

 In chapter 3 you meet the Indian man. The eye contact between them makes me question what the relationship between them is. Is he closely connected to the man that impregnated her or does she just have [ insert native american equivalent for jungle fever here]. I  find it interesting no one mentions the possibility of rape and that the rapist could have made a threat on her life if she did not remain silent. But naaaaaaaaah. It is reasonable to think no one would think of that given her attitude when being asked by the priest who the sinning companion is. The young reverend also brings me to the first question I stated I had about the native american, but not the second.

TED TALK

We left off at 6.26 in class.

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