A Reevaluation of The Scarlet Letter (Blog by Daniel Lee)
My last blog talked about the dissatisfaction high schoolers expressed to The Scarlet Letter. On that blog, I also expressed my personal opinion on the book too. I said that I hated the book and that I was dissatisfied with the book. Since we've recently finished The Scarlet Letter, I think it's a perfect time to reevaluate my feelings on the book.
When I posted my previous blog, our class had just finished reading chapter 3. We had finished the Custom House reading, and we were starting to get into the actual story. I was very frustrated with how confusing the book was. The Custom House sketch was gruesome to read. I remember that there was a part where Hawthorne took a whole page just to describe a minor detail, but it didn't even make sense to me. The whole Custom house sketch was confusing, written in an interesting prose, and was just boring. When we started to read chapters 1-3, I was expecting a major change compared to the Custom House sketch, but it was still boring. I was so angered with my book that I scrapped my old blog (which was about something else) and started to write a blog about how many high schoolers and even teachers hated the Scarlet Letter.
But now, we just finished the book. A lot more has happened in the book and my thoughts have changed a lot compared to the start. To start off, I want to say that The Scarlet Letter is actually quite an interesting book. Hawthorne is able to create a very interesting plot while also being able to sneak in hints of his dissatisfaction for Salem. Hawthorne presents us with moral questions that causes us readers to think. Because of this, as I was reading the book, I found myself thinking about these moral dilemmas deeply. As I got further into to reading the book, I started to find that Hawthorne's prose is much easier to read compared to the start. All the unknown vocabulary at the start was becoming more and more repetitive. Everything that made me hate the book was starting to become not as bad. On top of all this, the plot was actually starting to get more interesting. Hints of the relation between Dimmesdale and Hester were starting to be sprinkled and Chillingworth was starting to get more interesting as a character. All of these factors worked together to make the reading experience much more fun compared to the starting of the book. At the end of the book, everything was great. The plot was exciting, and the book was fun and interesting to read.
I still have lots of mixed feelings about the book. Was the book overall interesting and not that bad? Yes. Was the Custom House sketch and the start of the book extremely boring? Yes. I think that The Scarlet Letter isn't a horrible book for a high school curriculum, but I don't think that it's exceptionally great either. I find that lots of teachers find The Scarlet Letter interesting and fun to read is because of the multiple number of times they've read and taught the book over the course of time, whereas students are diving into a book headfirst not knowing what to expect and how to combat this book. However, when the students start to get used to the book, that's when everything starts to get more interesting and thought-provoking. I liked the book overall. What do you think? Did your thoughts on The Scarlet Letter also change?
It's cool that your perspective on The Scarlet Letter changed! Sticking with it paid off as the book got more engaging for you. It's true that different people have different experiences with books, and that's okay. What parts did you enjoy most? Did it challenge your thinking? What other books do you like?
ReplyDeleteHey Daniel! Personally, I went into this book not having read any books as demanding as The Scarlet Letter. For me, the Custom House sketches were painfully challenging - I had to reread almost every sentence more than a couple of times until I got the gist of what Hawthorne meant. Still, I fully agree with you when you say that Hawthorne's prose became much easier to understand as the book progressed. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi Daniel! I definitely agree that the Custom House sketches were hard to read; "gruesome" is a good word to describe it. Still, it's interesting that your opinion of the book progressed, and I think many other people had the same experience.
ReplyDeleteHi Daniel! I read The Scalet Letter 4 years ago and my opinion when reading it again has changed a lot! The first time reading, I never read the custom house sketch, although overall I found the book painfully boring and uninteresting. However, reading it a second time I actually liked it. I could appreciate the complexity the story offers and developed a much different opinion on characters like Dimmesdale. I definitely agree with your statement that this book can't be fully appreciated as much for first time readers which is why it is more popular among teachers than students.
ReplyDeleteHey Daniel! I totally agree with all of the things you say about the book. I only understood a small portion of the Custom House sketch due to a few reasons. One, the author's use of complicated and sometimes outdated vocabulary and complex run-on sentences makes it extremely difficult to understand what Hawthorne is trying to tell us. Also, like you said, the author's tendency to extensively focus on very minor details causes the large amount of boredom. However, as the book progresses, I realized that these features become much less frequent. I also began to see the development of an interesting plot with ambiguous characters who keep us thinking. It may not be the best book I've ever read, but it's definitely not the worst now that I finished reading the book. Fabulous book review!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree with what you've said. I think because English teachers already know the book -- and you can't deny that books become easier to read once you've already read them a few times -- they tend to have a lot of passion for the "boring" books that students don't normally have. I agree that The Scarlet Letter is a lot more interesting than a lot of people give it credit for, but I also understand that when a book becomes part of a school curriculum with set dates for finishing chapters, you kind of get to hate it during the process. Looking back, though, and when you actually treat the book like entertainment rather than school stuff, you might have changed views (like you did). Personally, I still dislike The Scarlet Letter, but I do understand how someone could actually enjoy it a lot, especially when they haven't had to read it in school.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of like how, now that I've read the Iliad a few times, I actually care about the characters and enjoy the plot. But when I was first reading it, I can't deny that I struggled to get through it.
DeleteHi Daniel! I found myself agreeing with a lot of the aspects of the book you presented here. I also wanted to say that my opinion of the book also changed. As the plot progressed, I saw myself more interested in the book. Great review!
ReplyDeleteHi Daniel. I completely agree with you that the beginning of the book was so boring. I also expected the first few chapters of the book after the Custom House to be much more interesting. However, the book did become more interesting later on in the book. I also agree that it got much easier to read Hawthorne's writing in the later chapters once we got used to it. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteHey Daniel, very interesting blog that you wrote, I liked how this blog has shown how you have grown as a reader. Your first evaluating was very critical of the book, but not that you have read the entire book you have been able to step back and really appreciate the book and its worth. Great job on this blog Daniel!
ReplyDeleteHello, Daniel, this was a very interesting blog you wrote about, it shows how you've grown as a reader, and now that you've read the book again you've taught me to appreciate the value of the book and how much it's worth.
ReplyDelete