The Scarlet Letter essay for every book that comes out, there are multiple critics that swarm to review it. Also the longer the book has been published, the more it is reviewed and studied more. Having been published for about 150 years, The Scarlet Letter has been read by many people and has earned a reputation of being a major piece in American Literature. Hawthorne wrote this book in an attempt to criticize his Puritan heritage as well as the hypocrisy the Puritans carried with them. Many critics continually praise Hawthorne for this famous book, but some Literature professors are beginning to look past the exaggerating stereotypes other critics have slapped on to The Scarlet Letter. While reading this book, it is obvious that Hawthorne uses excessive symbolism. Although symbols are a necessity in the creation of a mature novel, adding too many symbols makes the book slow to read, confuses readers, and is downright annoying.
HawthorneÃÂs The Scarlet Letter is an instance in which this occurs.
Upon reading The Scarlet Letter, it can be seen that it is not an easy book to start and finish unless forced into doing so. Part of the difficulty this book gives readers, especially young ones, is the addition of unnecessary symbolism. Symbols are constantly added throughout the novel and basically cause the reader to over analyze the book. This causes the reading to be excruciatingly time-consuming. Also with each new addition of a symbol a description follows thus creating more text to read. For example, the addition of the ÃÂBlack ManÃÂ in chapter 16 was not a necessary symbol, and it draws the attention away from the more important symbols. Pearl describing the man and, ÃÂHow he haunts this forest, and carries a book with him,ÃÂa big, heavy book,
The Scarlet Letter and Hawthorne's Excessive Symbolism
Almost from the outset, the essayist makes it very clear that he would rather be doing almost anything other than reading "The Scarlet Letter." To justify his contempt for the book, he comes up with the excuse that there are too many symbols in the book.
This writer sums up his thinking by saying, "Annoying should not be a characteristic of a great novel but somehow this book slipped past the judges."
Having recently reread "The Scarlet Letter," I disagree completely. I would offer this bit of insight. There are reasons that athletes practice and train, even (especially?) good athletes. Truly good athletes learn to appreciate the value of practice, even if it requires hard work. Similarly, there are reasons good students read "The Scarlet Letter," and truly good students learn to appreciate, and truly good students learn to appreciate the value of reading it. Indeed, the truly good student discovers it is a delightful book.
Keep practicing.
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