Scarlet Letter Research Simulation Task: Public Shame

The Scarlet Letter Research Simulation Task: Public Shame A girl who only went by Maureen was in 7th grade when she found herself having a crush on a boy in her school who was very athletic, cute, and tall. By using Kik, a social media platform, they would connect with each other and talk every day. After talking for several months, the boy asked for the girl to send naked photos. She had said no multiple times although the boy still continued to ask and she finally agreed and sent him 3 photos. He claimed that he would delete them immediately but it was only a few months later after they stopped talking, that she discovered that he never deleted them. The photos had been seen circulating around the school where she was called names like
slut, called gross, and even was told to kill herself. Maureen came up with excuses every day to not go to school because she knew she could not show her face. She began to self harm and even tried suicide although her attempt failed. Maureen was humiliated and desperately wanted to disappear from the world because she felt so alone and that it was never going to get better. Public shame has affected many people in so many ways. The age-old tradition should be left in the past due to others harassing the victim's family and friends as well as jeopardizing the victim's life and affecting them emotionally. Public shaming has become so prevalent, that now families, friends and people defending the victims are being attacked.
In the text, The Scarlet Letter, it expresses, “Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil, emblem, and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants” (Hawthorne 85). Since Pearl was born as a product of sin, the community viewed her as one and she was always looked at with negative words, such as “evil” and “elf-child”. Pearl was with her mother when she was being publicly shamed in front of everyone and from that day on, she could never be just a child that could be viewed the same as other children since she was looked at as a sin from the whole community. Also in this text, it describes, “Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter; and, or a truth, moreover, there is the likeness of the scarlet letter running along by her side! Come, therefore, and let us fling mud at them!” (Hawthorne 93). The children in the Puritan society look at Pearl as this product of sin as they see Hester wearing the scarlet letter. In this scene, they want to splash mud at them which is terrible but they view not only Hester, but Pearl as well, as nasty and bad people in their community. Next, Justine Sacco was a woman who was going to South Africa for a trip when she posted a racist tweet that offended many people. In the article it states, “... people began threatening her family directly,” (Bilton 1). Even though her family
was not even included in any part of this tweet, they were still being attacked. In addition, “Anyone who tried remotely to defend Ms. Sacco was then attacked, too,” (Bilton 2). These attacks start with people attacking one person, but because they are so public and viral, everyone becomes involved. As seen in the book and in the article, the victims are the ones who receive the majority of the shame but because people are seen with this victim, they are being attacked as well. For example, Pearl was seen with Hester when she was being publicly shamed so Pearl was viewed negatively due to her correlation with Hester. In addition, Ms. Sacco, the victim, has posted photos with her family members which these people saw, and starting attacking them too. It is known from this, that people will attack not only the victims but people that they see with them as well. People who also try to defend these victims and try to help the tension and arguments stop, are being harassed. Public shaming has become so powerful in this society today that it is so difficult to stay away from it. Furthermore, public shaming creates so much destruction in the victim's life and they can really be emotionally distraught.
In The Scarlet Letter it states, “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die!” (Hawthorne 49). People that were in the crowd while Hester was being publicly shamed said horrible things about her and that she should cease to exist. Hester felt that these words were very powerful and she became so sad because she knew the only person she would have in her life is Pearl and that is it. In addition, the text adds, “There were many people present, from the country round about, who had often heard of the scarlet letter, and to whom it had been made terrific by a hundred false or exaggerated rumors, but who had never beheld it with their bodily eyes. These, after exhausting other modes of amusement, now thronged about Hester Prynne with rude and boorish intrusiveness,” (Hawthorne 220). When several people came to listen to Mr. Dimmesdale give his sermon, they all would look rudely at Hester and the scarlet letter. Several people have heard many things, overstate and untrue rumors, about Hester and the scarlet letter and continued to shame her 7 years later for her sin. She did not appreciate getting a lot of attention at this revelation and definitely disliked and was hurt by all the rude stares she had gotten by the people. Furthermore, Monica Lewinsky was a woman who fell in love with her boss, Bill Clinton, the President of the United
States. She had an affair with him and the news soon dispersed throughout the world and she was publicly humiliated. In addition, in the speech it proclaims, “I was branded as a tramp, tart, slut, whore, bimbo, and of course, that woman,” (Lewinsky 4:52-5:39). Nowadays, name calling has become so common that everyone believes what they hear. When people are being called these names, they believe it and it causes their self-esteem to lower. Every name that they are called, is bringing them down that much further. Lewinsky explains in her speech several times how she hated herself and her life and how she truly did want to give up. Although she did not, there are still several people in this world that will. Name calling and the things being said about these victims are becoming so convincing and so hurtful and this is what is causing people to give up. This is just an addition to all the humiliation the person has to go through. People are being publicly humiliated every day and this is destroying people's lives and hurting them emotionally while other people around them are being affected by it too. Maureen is now in 10th grade and passes that boy every single day in the hallway. Till this day, there are still kids who will not let her forget what she did and still shame her. Maureen had made one mistake that had ruined and destroyed her life. She will never be able to be the girl she use to be because people will never let this mistake go away and will continue to shame her. She is now a quiet kid who does not have many friends and is only seen in school. She says that when she is home she feels like she is in control and she loves when school ends each day because she knows she can go escape again and return to a sense of normalcy which is becoming harder and harder to reach, due to the effects of public shaming.