Symbolism In The Minister's Black Veil

The Darkness of the Humankind and A little Girl’s Life Journey

In “The Minister’s Black Veil” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne the main character is a clergyman named Parson Hooper. The minister’s life was surrounded by a very crude society. He was being rejected by his townspeople and goes through undesirable moments to achieve his initial intention. Throughout the story, the narrator focused on what the black veils represented to the Puritan. The veil overall shows dark parable of the Puritan’s stress on faith and corruption of sin. The people were so concerned about the sin that Hooper is hiding underneath his black veil that they did not even care to look at their own sin. Mr. Hooper has a lot of faith and is devoted to helping the society but the people avoided him in times of his needs, therefore he was sad and lonely all the time. The story plays a major role in symbolism and the black veil represents a dismal shade of sin and sorrow which also “separated him from cheerful brotherhood and woman’s love and kept him in that saddest of all prisons, his own heart” (Hawthorne 53) this shows that his heart is a prison. The black color serve as the dark side of the people and by judging the way Mr. Hooper looks made the society focus more on his sin. Every person living in this world is a sinner and the black veil is a symbol to teach a moral lesson to the Puritan society.

In “A White Heron” written by Sarah Orne Jewett the main character is a little girl named Sylvia. A girl who came from a crowded manufacturing town to live with her grandmother deep in the forest has become a “little woods-girl” (Jewett 64). Sylvia’s life in the forest changed her completely from loving the natural environment. Her closeness to the forest along w...

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...there and cannot be forgotten. Hawthorne used Mr. Hooper as an example but in his case the minister showed his sin to the people by wearing a black veil rather than keeping it inside acting perfect and have not committed any sin. In conclusion of the “White Heron” Jewett tells the reader that Sylvia begins to understand what it means to have maturity and to overcome selfishness as a child. It also shows that the power of nature proved to be much greater than her. In reality many people would have given away the heron’s location, taking the money and ran. But Sylvia put the heron first before taking the money. This indicates that a little girl has grown. The color “white” of the heron, the cow’s milk being “white”, and the gray feathers of the birds overall resembles Sylvia’s pale white skin and gray eyes which is also the reason why she belongs to the place.