Silence In Scarlet Letter

No matter in what periods of time, women usually keep feelings to themselves when tragedy happens. Speak and The Scarlet Letter are two stories that share a similar tragedy that illustrate two of the most common themes – silence and shame. These two themes inform women to face what they are ashamed of and speak up for what is right.
One compelling illustration of silence is demonstrated in Speak. The main character of the story, Malinda, is a modern-day freshman traumatized by her involuntary sexual intercourse experience with a popular senior on an end-of-summer party. Yet she is also the one who called the cops because of what happened to her, which make all her friends and classmates hate her without knowing the truth. Malinda refused to

speak up because her friends stopped believe in her, “If there is anyone in the entire galaxy I am dying to tell what really happened, it’s Rachel. …Her eyes meet mine for a second, ‘I hate you,’” (Anderson 5). Not only friends, other adults did not give attention to Malinda’s depression either, “All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.” (Anderson 9). Anderson also explained how the shameful tragedy could make Malinda remain silent, “The whole point of not talking about it, of silencing the memory, is to make it go away.” (82). Not speaking up did not help Malinda to forget what happened on the party, it damaged her more as an outcast. Without facing her fear, Malinda will never let the painful memory go away.
Another theme presented in Speak is shame.

Malinda is ashamed of what happened to her and what she did on the party, part of the reason not speaking up is also because she accepted that guilt deep within her. She knows that the tragedy will not happen without her role playing in it, “me with an S maybe, S for silent, for stupid, for scared. S for silly. For shame.” (Anderson 101). Malinda did not tell her parents that instead of sleeping over at Rachel’s, she went to a party that night, “How can I talk to them about that night? How can I start?” she does not know how to begin the topic that she’s so afraid to talk about (Anderson 72). On the party, she not only drank several bottles of beer, she let down her guards to a handsome senior guy, thinking of “I would start high school with a boyfriend, older and stronger and ready to watch out for me.” (Anderson 135). These are all the things she’s too ashamed to face, to speak of. But everything changed when Malinda realized that there are other people who have similar experiences like her, she choose to face the ignominy at last, “IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding. Andy Evans raped me in August when I was drunk and too young to know what was happening. …And I’m not going to let it kill me. I can grow.” (Anderson 198). Shame makes Malinda kept her silence because she only wanted to avoid and forget the painful memories, but silence won’t help unless she face

what she fears and speak up.
Another inspiring example of silence and shame is shown in The Scarlet Letter. In “The Market-Place,” Hester is a married woman who had an affair and a baby with a pastor. Different from Malinda, it was during the time of Puritans. People harshly accused her of adultery and humiliated her by making her wear an A embroidery that stands for her sin. If Anderson mostly described the painful memory as Malinda’s symbol of shame, then Hawthorne used more distinct elements like adultery, the A embroidery, and the baby as Hester’s symbol for shame. Hawthorne showed the guilt and shame that Hester cannot ignore, “In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm…” Unlike Malinda, who could avoid her memory, the punishment Hester received force her to face the reality, “Could it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast, that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes! – these were her realities, - all else had vanished!” For Hester, speaking up or not may not change anything because she has to carry her responsibility and live with shame the rest of her life, but her actions could change others’ opinion.
While the setting and the characters of both story are quite different from each other, they presented a similar situation with diverse elements. Malinda, the protagonist of Speak, ashamed to speak of the truth, freed herself from the memory cage with courage and encouragement of other people. Hester, the protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, lived with the accusation of adultery, the A embroidery, and the baby her whole life, but she changed the view of others by doing selfless charity work. Silence and shame alternate throughout the stories to tell women who encounter difficult times not to be afraid and stand up for themselves.