O.J. Simpson had a normal life just like Hester Prynne. But in both of these cases, a sudden turn of events changed their lives completely. O.J. Simpson was a professional football star who was convicted of a double murder in 1994. His case was publicly televised from the start to the end. Both Prynne and O.J. Simpson cases were publicly shamed; they were treated negatively and ostracized by society. Hester Prynne’s sin was publicized to the Puritan community not by television but by her standing on a scaffold and wearing an A on her dress. While on the scaffold, Hester was interviewed by Reverend John Wilson, Governor Bellingham, and Reverend Dimmesdale. They all asked her to say the name of her impregnator so he could be punished as well. …show more content…
Her parents had died in England and her husband refused to be associated with her because of her sin. Her impregnator also didn’t talk to her because he held a high position in the Puritan community and didn’t want his reputation as a leader and man of God to be ruined. But Hester’s sin did affect all of these people, even if she wasn’t physically close to them, and her ostracization affected her baby most of all. Pearl, Hester’s baby, was greatly affected by Hester’s sin. The lack of a father figure in Pearl’s life made her different from all the other Puritan children. Usually, in a Puritan community, the father was the one that rebuked a child and the mother was the loving one. In this case, Hester tried to play both roles but failed to play the father figure. So Pearl was different, “Pearl saw, and gazed intently, but never sought to make acquaintance. If spoken to, she would not speak again. If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble, because they had so much the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue (55).” This also happened to O.J. Simpson except this affected his girlfriend. During the trial, O.J. Simpson was dating Paula Barbieri but his trial led to her getting bad publicity. She dumped him publicly
The two of them, after Dimmesdale dies, continue with their plans to go back to England where they hope for a better life. Once in England, the two are able to change their lives around for the better. Pearl is even found to have a family of her own: “Mr. Surveyor Pue, who made investigations a century later, … Pearl was not only alive, but married, and happy, and mindful of her mother; and that she would most joyfully have entertained that sad and lonely mother at her fireside” ( Hawthorne 392). Pearl was able to overcome her old life and create a new one, a better one, one that was just for her. Even though her mother was no longer around she tried her best to kept in touch with her. She also kept her and her mother’s experience in mind never to let herself go back to that life. After spending many years in England, Hester finally returns to New England. When she returns she is full of sorrow and regret; however, she continues to wear her A on upon her chest as a reminder of her pain. With returning to the land of sin, people came to Hester, mostly women, with problems of their own. They hope by talking to someone who has been through so much will help them, or give them insight on what life is like to be on the outside: “And, as Hester Prynne had no selfish ends, nor lived in any measure for her own profit and enjoyment, people brought all their sorrows and perplexities, and besought her counsel, as one who had herself gone through a mighty trouble. Women, more especially,—in the continually recurring trials of wounded, wasted, wronged, misplaced, or erring and sinful passion,—or with the dreary burden of a heart unyielded, because unvalued and unsought,—came to Hester’s cottage, demanding why they were so wretched, and what the remedy! Hester comforted and counseled them, as best she might” (Hawthorne 392-393). Even though Hester was miserable and thought that no
Pearls behavior could be described as abnormal, disrespectful, undignified, or altogether opposite of most Puritan customs. “The child could not be made amenable to rules” (p42); she will not conform to the Puritan view of what a child should be like. Pearl’s enduring disobedience is representative of Hester’s disobedient act. Pearl should be constant reminder of personal sin to everyone that meets her; however, as it would be, she only reminds others of Hester’s sin. Around strangers, and at certain times at home, this poor child becomes merely an “unpremeditated offshoot of a passionate moment." (p52)
Hester is a youthful, beautiful, proud woman who has committed an awful sin and a scandal that changes her life in a major way. She commits adultery with a man known as Arthur Dimmesdale, leader of the local Puritan church and Hester’s minister. The adultery committed results in a baby girl named Pearl. This child she clutches to her chest is the proof of her sin. This behavior is unacceptable. Hester is sent to prison and then punished. Hester is the only one who gets punished for this horrendous act, because no one knows who the man is that Hester has this scandalous affair with. Hester’s sin is confessed, and she lives with two constant reminders of that sin: the scarlet letter itself, and Pearl, the child conceived with Dimmesdale. Her punishment is that she must stand upon a scaffold receiving public humiliation for several hours each day, wearing the scarlet letter “A” on her chest, represe...
... disorganized, the investigators and prosecutors failed to prove that OJ was guilty. Police had mishandled evidence which was very crucial in the trial. And had only one credible witness that was at the scene but didn’t see OJ`s face at all. In the Civil trial I observed that there was more justice. Though OJ was not going to serve jail time, they were awarded 33.5 million dollars in punitive damages. In the civil trial there had to be a 50% probability that OJ committed the crime, which was proven in the civil court by the plaintiffs. Lastly in the custody trial between Nicole Browns parents and OJ Simpson, the browns family couldn’t prove that OJ was an unfit father without them using the evidence that he killed Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman. The judge was not allowed to permit the criminal evidence. This resulted in the Browns family losing the custody battle.
Hester Prynne’s sin was adultery. This sin was regarded very seriously by the Puritans, and was often punished by death. Hester’s punishment was to endure a public shaming on a scaffold for three hours and wear a scarlet letter "A" on her chest for the rest of her life in the town. Although Hawthorne does not pardon Hester’s sin, he considers it less serious than those of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Hester’s sin was a sin of passion. This sin was openly acknowledged as she wore the "A" on her chest. Hester did not commit the greatest sin of the novel. She did not deliberately mean to commit her sin or mean to hurt others.
They called it the “Trial of the Century “. When O.J. Simpson was accused of killing his wife Nicole Simpson and waiter Ronald Goldman, the world was in shock. He was tried on two counts of murder on June 12th, 1994. Orenthal James Simpson had some of the best lawyers and a great team, fighting to hear the words “not guilty”. Everything was going his way, from questioning the lab workers about the blood found to not even having believable DNA evidence. However, O.J. was still considered a suspect because there were so called “witnesses” that saw him at the scene of the crime around the time it took place. It was also said that O.J. was seen wearing a dark blue cotton suit that contained the same kind of fibers that were
...this day justice has still not been served. If OJ didn’t do it then somebody did. Although some people might say that OJ has been dealt the wrath of karma, because he does indeed sit in prison for an unrelated crime.
For seven long years, Hester and her bastard child Pearl suffered great anguish. Their existence in this Puritan setting was almost intolerable. Yet they went about their lives and took each bit of happiness, though few, and made the most of it. It is the tendency of many to thrive on the failing and downfall of others; that is what transpired during this period. Possibly, her actions served as a catalyst for exploitation, but how she was perceived by her fellow man was not a significant factor in her decision not to expose her lover.
J and Nicole's relationship. This is the biggest piece of evidence in the case and there is a lot to cover. First of all O. J was having affairs when Nicole got pregnant with their first child Sydney Brooke, and probably before that. O. J was a charming man that got what he wanted, according to close friends and family. Nicole wrote a letter while she was still married. In this letter she wrote that it was a huge mistake getting married, but she was the only one how thought so. She also wrote that his "nasty" attitude and mean streak was to cover up cheating. The relationship between O. J and Nicole seemed perfect in the beginning, but after a while it all went south. O. J started taking his anger out on Nicole, started getting abusive. He was extremely possessive over her and got jealous easily. There are 8 different police-call recordings, were you can hear Nicole in fear and O. J yell in the background. One of these incidents happened on New Year's Day 1989. On the recording you can hear someone being beaten and a feminine scream, then yelling and the call ends. When the police arrived at the house, he found Nicole in the bushes only wearing sweatpants and a bra, crying and yelling "He's going to kill me! He's going to kill me!" The policeman said he would talk to O. J, but Nicole told him that was all they ever did. She wanted her husband arrested for beating his wife. Then O. J came running out yelling that he didn't want he sleeping in his bed anymore and that she could leave, and admitting all of his affairs. The policeman told him to go back inside and get dressed, because he was under arrest for domestic violence. O. J went inside and then went out the backdoor of the house and drove off. He was not found that night, but called one of his good friends who is a policeman. He told him that Nicole and himself had gotten a little drunk and had an argument that got to heated and that Nicole had gotten physical. O. J was turning
When a change of venue was made in Simpson’s trial it caused a big difference within the cases. It was deliberately not considered in Tom 's trial because in the end it was concluded that a change of venue would not be necessary since any jury would find a black man guilty in any case when it is his word against a white woman’s word. OJ’s case was changed and moved to the downtown district, in Santa Monica, instead of where the crime incident occurred to avoid racial imbalances and to accommodate the media inferno in Los Angeles (Kennedy, David and Cohen 113). This also led to the change of the jury because this also had a major effect on the result of OJ’s trial. If a change of venue was also made in Tom’s trial the outcome would be drastically different. In Maycomb, a small Southern town where Tom was from, everyone was quite interested in the case and had a negative opinion about Tom which resulted in him being treated unequally as if he was not a citizen of the United States. Tom was just concluded as an evil and an unreasonable black man while OJ was seen as a great NFL all-star who would never commit a
Pearl lived a different life than any of the other puritan children. She is a free spirited child. Hester lets her blossom intointo the brilliant child she blooms into through the story. Pearl is not afraid to speak her mind. “She could recognize her wild, desperate, defiant mood, the flightiness of her temper, and even some of the very cloud-shapes of gloom and despondency that had brooded in her heart” (Hawthorne 93). Hester saw the light in her child and embraced it. The other Puritan children are confused by Pearls behavior. They have never been around a child li...
As a living reminder of Hester’s extreme sin, Pearl is her constant companion. From the beginning Pearl has always been considered as an evil child. For Hester to take care of such a demanding child, put lots of stress onto her life. Hester at times was in a state of uncontrollable pressure. “Gazing at Pearl, Hester Prynne often dropped her work upon her knees, and cried out with an agony which she would fain have hidden, but which made utterance for itself, betwixt speech and a groan, ‘O Father in heaven- if Thou art still my Father- what is this being which I have brought into the world!’” (Hawthorne, 77).
The trial garnered enormous media attention and public following nationwide for numerous reasons, including Judge Lance Ito’s permitting cameras in the courtroom that televised the trial live, the ensuing Bronco chase after Simpson refused to turn himself in, the Audio Recorded Tapes of then LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman. The last reason becoming a large focus of the defense in the as the trial progressed not only because of the perjury that ensued from Detective Fuhrman’s testimony during trial, but also because Detective Fuhrman, can be heard “ridiculing” the judge's wife in audio recordings. The additional section of the trial that had Mr. Simpson try on the gloves the prosecution alleged he wore while committing the murders additionally became a turning point in the trial and received much attention by the media and the public. This scene, to add more detail, involved Mr. Simpson putting on a pair of latex gloves and then pulling on the leather gloves on top. By wearing the latex gloves underneath, it appeared to the jury and the public that the leather gloves used by the murderer were too small to have been Mr. Simpsons and “spawned the motto” used by Mr. Cochran in his closing argument “If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit!” This motto was repeated numerous times in Mr. Cochran’s closing argument and served as an additional focus to the racial themes and epithets that were illuminated throughout the trial. Prior to the O.J Simpson murder trial, race relations had reached their tipping point in Los Angeles, following the acquittal of four white LAPD officers filmed viciously beating black motorist Rodney King in 1992. In contrast to the Rodney King incident where white officers were in the position of power and the defendants in the case and thus were credible and given the benefit of the doubt, the Simpson case
Initially Pearl is the symbol of Hesters public punishment for her adultery. As the novel progresses and Pearl matures she symbolizes the deteriation of Hester's like by constantly asking her about the scarlet letter "A". Pearl in a sense wants her mother to live up to her sin and, she achieves this by constantly asking her about the scarlet letter. Another peice of evidence that shows how Pearl symbolizes the sin Hester has committed, is when the town government wants to take Pearl away from her Revrend Dimmsdale convinces the government that Pearl is a living reminder of her sin. This is essentialy true, Hester without Pearl is like having Hester without sin.
After Hester stood on the scaffold, being humiliated in front of the public she was granted the option to leave or stay in Boston. “Here. she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul…” (Hawthorne 72). Since Hester decided to stay in Boston, because it was the place where she committed her sin the citizens treated Hester and Pearl very poorly. When Hester and Pearl would walk through town they would get evil glares and the children’s parents would tell their kids biased information about Hester and Pearl, because of this the children wouldn’t want to play with Pearl, instead they threw things at her. Hester’s decision to stay in Boston with all the citizens that saw her as a sinner really took a toll on how she was treated.