All good writing takes a narrow focus and goes deep. In fact, and even though it sounds contradictory, there is a truism about composition that says, "The smaller the focus, the more there is to say." When writing about literature, the essayist explains his or her idea about one specific aspect of a work and connects it to the work as a whole.

To show what you’ve learned about reading like a detective, compose an essay of about 500 words (two double-spaced pages) that specifically addresses and discusses a tiny and especially fertile passage in The Scarlet Letter. You will unpack that passage for your reader by connecting it to related passages and to an important recurring theme of the book as a whole. Your essay must convince your reader of the strength and relevance of your idea, evidence, and comments.

Your essay must

present and support a thesis (your idea) about the significance of one tiny but important passage

connect that passage to other passages similar to it and to a major theme of the book

use quotations in sentences of your own to support and develop your ideas

offer correct parenthetical citations for quotations

have a title that points to your idea

include a "Work Cited" page (use NoodleTools)

demonstrate correct manuscript form

be accompanied by all notes, false starts, and drafts (attached to the back in descending chronological order)

contain two pledges: the standard Webb pledge and a pledge stating that you have read the book in its entirety

(to save paper, the essays are not double-spaced

and the "Work Cited" lists do not appear on separate pages as the should and originally did)

Shards of a Society

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of many perplexing metaphors is that of the structure of the governor’s house. Covered in stucco thoroughly intermixed with shards of shattered glass, the house appears brilliant in the sunlight that strikes it. In fact it "glitter[s] and sparkle[s] as if diamonds ha[ve] been slung against it by the double handful" (70). However, the house is not only beautiful, but also dangerous. Broken glass can cut.

The beauty of the house is its most obvious aspect. To the passing citizen, it seems as if its "brilliancy [may befit] Aladdin’s palace" (70). Its visual wonder caused little Pearl to "caper and dance" (71). It might even be said that it gave her a feeling of "happiness and virtue" (33). This description also applies to the society the Puritans originally imagined for their New World. This intent was unfortunately not fulfilled. The Puritans brought with them the sins they had wanted to leave behind, with only the guise of moral brilliancy. Instead, though, the people of the colony are forced to dress in drab, gray clothing. Their faces take on a monotone "grim rigidity" (34), and all make a public spectacle of condemned sinners, instead of forgiving them, as would be appropriate of Christians such as these.

The brilliance of the glass on the outside of the governor’s house was just as deceptive as the outward nature of the society. Pearl "require[s] that the whole breadth of the sunshine be stripped off [the front of the governor’s house] and given to her to play with" (71). Hester refuses, unable to give her daughter either the sunshine or the virtue and goodness that it represented, and that was so very attractive. But what if Pearl, being a passionate and less-than-obedient child, had actually tried to take some from the house? What if she had tried to reach out her fingers, and take some of the sunlight off of it? The sharpness of the glass that was inside the stucco would have cut her fingers, harming her.

The Puritan society, also, can have a harmful effect on individuals such as Pearl, who want the light and brilliance that the society appears to offer, but can only harm. What might be harmed is the individuality of the society’s inhabitants, by way of the uniform dull clothing, and the constant moralizing of the church. Also harmed might be compassion for the lost. The women of the colony--those voluminous gossips—displayed a miraculous lack of sympathy for Hester, claiming that the magistrates, in sentencing Hester to permanent ignominy, have been "merciful overmuch" (36).

Such a loss and harm may have come to Pearl had she stayed too long in the society, or had grown up in the more central parts of it. She was instead an outcast from birth, and therefore immune for a while to its harm. She was saved from the glass on the house by not touching it, and was saved from society by never really entering it.

Work Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. 1850. Dover Thrift ed. New York: Dover, 1994.

An Angel of Judgment