Quote Response #3-The Scarlet Letter

    In chapter nine of, The Scarlet Letter, there is a quote that I believe applies to many people throughout the world. This quote can be found on page 106 and reads, “Wherever there is a heart and an intellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tinged with the peculiarities of these.” I believe that this quote is designed to mean that when people have guilty feelings stored in their hearts and minds, then as a consequence their physical health may also be effected. People who live for long periods of time with guilt lodged within themselves may suddenly stop taking care of their health because all they can think about are all the wrong doings in their lives. It is as if their guilt is a demon which takes over everything they do and everything they think about.
    This is obviously very true when it comes to poor Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale. He has wronged Hester Prynne, as well as the innocent, young Pearl because he has never publicly acknowledged the fact that he is Pearl’s father. While it is understandable why he would wish to keep their affair a secret, I believe he should own up to it for the sake of Pearl. In a way, he probably does wish that he could just come out with the truth and this is probably what causes his poor health. It is a situation of easier said than actually done. Until he actually owns up to his wrong doing, his health will surely do nothing more than decline.
    Personally I find this quote to be rather significant because many people can relate to it. I know that in my life, whenever I am feeling guilty about something I have to quickly own up to it or else it will slowly consume me. Although my guilt typically does not cause health issues, partly because I own up to my wrong doings quickly, I figure that some people are not so lucky. No matter how many times I have tried to put my guilty feelings out of my mind, they always find their way back in until I stop and fix the situation. I know that I can easily relate to this quote and surely others who do not enjoy living with a guilty conscious would be able to as well. 

Quote Response #2- The Scarlet Letter

    In chapter eight of, The Scarlet Letter, I found a quote describing Hester Prynne’s daughter, Pearl. This quote can be found on page 97 and is only a few sentences long. The quote reads, “The old minister seated himself in an armchair, and made an effort to draw Pearl betwixt his knees. But the child, unaccustomed to the touch or familiarity of any but her mother, escaped through the open window and stood on the upper step looking like a wild, tropical bird, of rich plumage, ready to take flight into the upper air”. I believe this short statement shows the true innocence of Pearl and how unfair her life has already been. Later on, it describes Pearl as being about three years of age and it is clear that in the those three short years, she has been pretty much sheltered from the world around her. While I can totally understand why Hester would want to shelter her daughter from the judgmental people of their community, I also think that her daughter would have benefited greatly from being around other people.
    Also, I believe that Pearl may have felt the tension that her mother was experiencing from being around these judgmental individuals. She obviously could sense that her mother, the one and only person that she was close to, was feeling uncomfortable and in a way, that feeling became familiar to her as well. The simile, “But the child, unaccustomed to the touch or familiarity of any but her mother, escaped through the open window and stood on the upper step looking like a wild, tropical bird, of rich plumage, ready to take flight into the upper air”, compares Pearl to a bird that needs to escape from a predator or unfamiliar situation. Pearl was unfamiliar with this man and obviously did not feel comfortable with him being as close to her as he had been.
    I believe this quote is significant because it illustrates the fact that the tension Hester Prynne feels every time she has to walk around her town is very real. This tension and uncomfortably has now transferred into her own innocent daughter. Although Pearl has done nothing wrong, the town finds her very existence to be sinful within itself. This quote illustrates just how innocent, but also how aware Pearl is of all the tension that she is unfairly experiencing. It just goes to show that life is sometimes unfair and no matter how much you want to change it, it simply cannot be done. 

Quote Reponse #1-The Scarlet Letter

    In chapter five of, The Scarlet Letter, I found a very interesting quote which began on the bottom of page 80 and ended on the top of page 81. The quote reads,             “ Again, a mystic sisterhood would contumaciously assert itself, as she met the sanctified frown of some matron, who, according to the rumor of all tongues, had kept cold snow within her bosom throughout life. That unsunned snow in the matron’s bosom, and the burning shame on Hester Prynne’s-what had the two in common? Or, once more, the electric thrill would give her warning- “Behold, Hester, here is a companion!”-and, looking up, she would detect the eyes of a young maiden glancing at the scarlet letter, shyly and aside, and quickly averted with a faint chill of crimson in her cheeks; as if her purity were somewhat sullied by that momentary glance”. While this quote is rather long and shares a large amount of information, I believe I have a rather good understanding of it.
    The above quote explains the similarities between women with “cold snow within her bosom”, and Hester Prynne. A woman with “cold snow within her bosom”, is simply meant to be a woman who is cold-hearted or simply put a person who acts cold to others. The quote also explains that the woman’s cold heart and Hester’s scarlet letter are basically one in the same. It is as if these two types of women, cold-hearted ones and adulteresses, are meant to be companions. Whether or not Hester is cold-hearted like these other women does not even matter. Her scarlet “A” on her bosom is enough to qualify her as one of these women just because the stigma attached to it. Then, in the last sentence of the quote it states that many young women attempt to steal glances at Hester’s scarlet letter, but Hester meets their gazes and they then become embarrassed. It is as if they lost some of their own purity just by looking at Hester.
    I believe this quote is rather significant because it shows how many stigmas were attached to Hester. She had a child with someone who was not her husband and because of this fact, she immediately was treated like she was pure evil. I find it so crazy that a community would turn on one of their own members due to her personal sin. It is as if they want to be in total control of everything that their community members took part in. This quote truly shows just how significantly America has changed from the time of establishment up until now.

Women In America- The Scarlet Letter

In America, the status and role of women in our society has changed multiple times. While women were once only viewed as maids, children bearers, and basically to put it bluntly, objects, today things are much different. Women today can vote, own property, have a job, as well as share the responsibility of a family with another individual. I simply cannot imagine my life if I had to live how many women lived their lives in early America. In an excerpt from The Scarlet Letter beginning on page 246, it states that men should only consider certain women when they are looking for a future spouse. Things such as chastity, sobriety, cleanliness, and beauty are all things that an 1831 article suggested a man look for in a woman that he intends on marrying. This totally struck me as hilarious because nowhere in this suggestion does it mention what a woman should look for in a man or if a woman’s feelings even truly matter. This reinforces the idea that women were once simply known as objects. Luckily, women today are viewed as equal to men and there are rarely significant differences in status between the sexes. The old America was filled with double standards and while there are still instances of this issue, our society seems to be better off today.
    It seems so hard to believe that America has changed so much in only a matter of years. Another excerpt from the book details the idea that women that cheat on their spouses are to be considered prostitutes and just down right filthy. They reason that this idea is acceptable because they believe women are supposed to be the fairer and therefore more delicate sex. Nowhere in this explanation do they mention the idea that men shall be deemed disgusting if they cheat on their wives. This excerpt is a total double standard. It is absolutely ridiculous to believe that a man is not as much at fault for cheating on his wife.
    The last excerpt that I discovered to be rather obnoxious was written in 1765 by a man by the name of William Blackstone. It states that by marriage, the husband and wife become legally one person. The very being and legal existence of the woman is said to have been suspended during the marriage and therefore consolidated to the husband completely. Personally, this statement makes me believe that these men only viewed women as a piece of their property. They basically became owners of their wives under this law, which probably made the men extremely happy and the women rather unhappy. Women are not pieces of property and luckily America gradually became more intelligent about equality. Men and women of America are now considered equal and while I believe it should have always been this way, I just like to remember the idea of better late, than never.     

Adultery in America- The Scarlet Letter

    Throughout the history of America, adultery has always been a generally debatable subject. While the settlers of America found adultery to be an act that required for the persons’ involved to be physically punished and sometimes even killed, Americans today view adultery in a much different light. Most people still agree that adultery is a rather horrible act to commit, but nowadays, it is not at all illegal. There are no strict laws prohibiting this act and people who commit adultery no longer have to fear for their lives. Unless of course, you are Tiger Woods and your wife (allegedly) chases you down with a golf club and beats you senseless after she finds out about all the women you have been with. In such a case like this, you may have to start fearing for your life. But for the massive number of Americans who choose to commit adultery today, there are really no severe consequences for their actions. While I personally find adultery to be truly repulsive and insensitive, I do not believe our government should be entitled to punish the offenders.
    In the text referring to adultery beginning on page 241 of The Scarlet Letter, it states that  many of America’s original colonies had strict laws prohibiting adultery. The Massachusetts Bay colony established their adultery law on October 18th,1631 and it proclaimed that if any man fornicates with another man’s wife, he shall be punished by death. Many other colonies followed suit and established laws that required offenders to be beaten and sometimes killed. They also required the adultery participants to be publicly ridiculed for their actions that they believed greatly dishonored God.
    While I do understand that times were very different back when America was initially established, I find it so incredible that adultery, which was once something so taboo, is now only frowned upon. In our society today, people commit adultery all the time. The media tells us daily of new tales of adultery that were committed by celebrities and even political workers. While these people technically do receive some sort of public ridicule, they do not receive much more than that. Our government is no longer involved in these affairs and I believe that this is the way that it should be. If somebody decides to engage in a sinful act, then I believe it should be up to them. They will be the one’s who have to live with a guilty conscious and personally I find that to be punishment enough.  

Response to, "Death and Justice"

      In our society the death penalty has always been and always will be a debatable subject. In the short essay, “Death and Justice”, which can be found on page 534 of The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers, the author, Edward I. Koch, discusses his view on this truly touchy subject. He has worked in the public service industry for a large number of years and over those years he has heard the many differing opinions on the capital punishment controversy. While he has heard positive and negative things about the death penalty, he personally is in favor of capital punishment. To illustrate why he is in favor of the death penalty he discusses seven reasons why people tend to find the death penalty unfair. The first reason why people tend to find the death penalty unfair and wrong is because they consider the death penalty “barbaric”. While some may find it a barbaric practice, it tends to be one that is done as humanely as possible. Another reason why people dislike the death penalty is because America is currently the only major democracy that uses the death penalty. Also, people like to question what would happen if an innocent person was accidentally convicted and then put to death. Mistaken identity cases have happened before and without a true confession there seems to always be an element of doubt. Along with this doubt comes the idea that the death penalty actually cheapens the value of human life. If the government is so willing to put these convicts to death, won’t the value of life be lessened? The last three issues that many people have with the death penalty is that it is applied in a discriminatory manner, the bible is against it (Thou shalt not kill), and the fact that the death penalty is basically state-sanctioned murder. While these ideas are all very interesting, the author discusses his main reasons why all of these reasons lack real substance. He explains that the death penalty is only given to those who truly deserve it. If there was no death penalty how would these criminals know there is the harshest form of punishment waiting for them if they take the life of someone else.
    While some may call the author’s opinion hypocritical and the wrong way to think, I personally agree whole heartedly with him. If someone decides to take the life of an innocent individual I believe that the government is totally right to take their life from them. While this may be considered an “eye for an eye” type of way to look at it, I believe it’s perfectly acceptable. If there was no death penalty wouldn’t this give criminals the okay to do as they please? There truly would be nothing stopping them other than the fact that they have to spend their life in jail. For all I know, these people wouldn’t mind spending their life in jail. I always think of it like this, if someone killed someone that I loved, I would want them to be killed as punishment. While some believe an “eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”, I would rather have the whole world be blind than have these disgusting criminals literally getting away with murder.  

Response to, "One Thing to Do About Food"

    For the millions of Americans who are always on the go, fast-food is typically the easiest way for them to catch a bite to eat. While this food may be convenient and easy on the wallet, it is rarely very healthy. In one of the responses from the essay, “One Thing to Do About Food”, which can be found in The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers, the author, Eric Schlosser, discusses the hidden dangers of the fast-food, as well as processed foods. He stresses the idea that looks may indeed be deceiving, especially when it comes to the food that we eat. He claims that numerous nameable fast-food and also processed food chains use advertising that truly is not realistic. Skinny and attractive people who seem to be having fun have been known to sell these cheaply made and nutritionally disturbing items. He also explains that Americans tend to buy things without really doing their research on the products. In 2005, the United States House passed The National Uniformity for Food Act of 2005. This act seemed to be a prime example of how food companies prefer to keep their consumers in the dark about what they are really selling. The author explained that if the Senate followed up on passing this act into a law, states would be prevented from having food safety or labeling requirements stricter than those of the federal government. State created laws that help keep people informed about what exactly is included in their favorite foods would all be virtually unheard of. Obviously this is all very troubling information. The author urges people to do more research about the foods that they buy before they buy them.
    I found this essay to be rather interesting. Truthfully I rarely do my own research about what is really in the food products that I eat. I guess you could say that I have always thought that our government would create restrictions on food companies so that they wouldn’t be able to sell their products without a warning. Obviously I am just too trusting and would prefer to have someone else do all the research about such things, rather than having to do it all myself. Besides the fact that I don’t have the time to research every food item that I decide to eat, even if I did research the ingredients that are included, I probably wouldn’t know what to do with the information. How am I going to distinguish whether an ingredient that is included is harmful or harmless without doing even more research. There comes a point where it just seems like a never ending cycle and this should not be the case. Bottom line is that our government should be looking out for the welfare of the citizens of our country and we should expect nothing less than the absolute best in information about these types of issues.