Proto-Feminism, And Discrimination In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

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The Scarlet letter is a story widely known around the world. Although the story was published in 1850, the context is still very much understandable and relatable to people today. When you bring all the pieces together, the story actually doesn’t seem as ancient as you might think. The story takes place during puritan times, and although a lot of the problems with the puritan society have been fixed, america still has some work to do. The main character hester prynne had an affair which is a sin and you were executed for it once during puritan times. The story begins in boston. I believe the three central themes of this story are passion, proto-feminism, and discrimination. In chapter two of the story when hester prynne was in the marketplace there was a woman that stated that hester should have been killed for what she had done. She specifically says “ This woman has brought shame upon us all, and outta die”. By today’s standards in america having an affair is definitely …show more content…

While this person wasn’t particularly a “man”, emmett till is a good example. Emmett till was a fourteen year old african american male who was falsely accused of flirting with a white woman. This all took place in mississippi as the fourteen year old was brutally beaten to the point where his mother wanted to have an open funeral service to show the world what had happened. His body was found in the Tallahatchie river. Of course this case also displays other issues we have in the world even today, but most of those aren’t really addressed in the scarlet letter. The two caucasian males that were responsible for the lynching and ultimately the murder were ruled not guilty by an all white jury. The woman involved in the case even admitted to

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