Compare And Contrast The Jungle And The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter vs. The Jungle

The Jungle and The Scarlet Letter have different settings, but they have similar themes and concepts of corruption. They are different in many ways, but similar in others. Hawthorne and Sinclair had a more clear vision of what was really going on behind the scenes.

Within The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne eloquently describes the harshness of the time period that Hester Prynne was born into. Hester moved to a New England colony long before her husband did. The colony was based on avoiding corruption, but was even more corrupt, itself. The leaders were so absorbed in making their followers righteous, that they were lost in their own sin.

“"Be it sin or no," said Hester Prynne bitterly, as she still gazed after him, "I hate the man!"

[…]

"Yes, I hate him!" repeated Hester, more bitterly

than before. "He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!"” (Hawthorne, 161.)
She recognized that her acts of sin was only minor compared to the judgmental mind of
Chillingsworth, which ties in that the citizens as a whole are corrupt.

Throughout The Scarlet Letter we see examples of people who look down on Hester when they had their own sins. Dimmesdale let the guilt overcome him and he became corrupted and mislead throughout the story.

Corruption also shows its masked face within The Jungle. Crime is abundant throughout the entirety of the novel. Jurgis tries to fight the corruption of the people around him, but eventually becomes tainted by the harshness. He starts out his life of crime with a simple charge of assault that was not entirely his fault, but slowly progresses into a life of crime after the death of his wife and son.

Although both characters fell into the corruption of their surroundings, each lifted themselves out of the pit of their transgressions. Jurgis returned to his family and tried to make amends. He found something that gave him hope, such as the Socialist Party. Hester lead a righteous life after committing adultery. She was going to be forgiven and allowed to take her banner of shame from her

chest.
The settings of each story are drastically different. In The Scarlet Letter, times are different and you are judged on your relationship with God. In that time, the person who committed the crime was publically humiliated. In Jurgis’ time, you were judged and punished for acts of brutality.
Finally, both novels have the same theme: immigrants and a new dream. Each character immigrated to the Americas to achieve a dream of being free and having a better life for themselves. Both were deceived by the sweet lies of freedom, but found out the truth through trials.
The amount of death and suffering in both stories show the capacity to heal. Jurgis felt the knife of death and deceit among his own family yet chose to push on and find a better life and outlet. Hester felt the death, or rather disappearance, of her daughter and chose to live and endure.
Although both characters went through their stories mostly in pain and suffering, each came out stronger. Affected by their surroundings, they adapted and learned a new strategy to survival. They pushed through corruption.
“Power corrupts. Knowledge is power. Study hard. Be evil.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt