The Scarlet Letter Journal Entries

Journal 1: In the introduction, we learn about the nameless narrator who is the chief executive officer of the Salem Custom House. Since there are barely any ships that comes to Salem, the narrator spends his time trying to amuse himself. One rainy day he stumbles upon a pile of documents and finds a manuscript with a gold cloth in the shape of a letter A. It is a work written by Jonathan Pue, who had an interest in local history and he wrote about the events that happened in the middle of the seventeenth century. The narrator decides to write about Hester Prynnes experiences but with uninspiring men he is not able to. When a new president is elected, the narrator starts to write a story called The Scarlet Letter. Next, we learn about Hester Prynne. She is tall with dark hair. The first thing she does is that she comes out of a prison holding an infant with the letter “A” on her chest. There are many criticisms as Hester walks through the crowd about her adultery. Hester spots her husband in the crowd but he indicates with his finger to tell her to keep his identity a secret. Because Hester refuses to reveal the father of her child she is sentenced to three hours on the scaffold and have to wear the scarlet letter for eternity. Governor Bellingham does not push Hester further in revealing the other sinner and Hester is led back into the prison. One major theme that surfaces is Pride. Even with the humiliation of walking through a crowd wearing a scarlet letter A on her chest, Hester not once did she look ashamed. She held her head high with her child and walked through the crowd with elegance and beauty.

Journal 2
One of the many quotes that describe Pearl is, “Certainly, there was no physical defect. By its perfect shape, its vigor, and its natural dexterity in the use of all its untried limbs, the infant was worthy of to have been brought forth in Eden; worthy to have been left there, to be the plaything of the angels, after the world’s first parents