...FINAL WORD TRACK ANALYSIS- THE BLACK MAN In The scarlet letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne has used “Black Man “to signify evil and darkness. The Scarlet letter is based on the sins of the puritan society. The word “Black Man” refers to the “Satan” who is the devil. Many religions believe it to be an incarnation of God in a human or animal. Puritans and Christians believed it to be a devil dressed in black, who haunts the forest and tempts people into signing their name in his book with their own blood as ink. The word “Black Man” is used for the first time by Hester Prynne in chapter 4 while conversing with Roger Chillingworth. She says “art thou like the Black man that haunts the forest round about us? Hast thou enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul?” .Hester Prynne doesn’t trusts Roger Chillingworth and believes he is trying to take his revenge. Roger Chillingworth has asked Hester to keep his identity a secret. Hester Prynne knows something will be wrong because of this bond but still she makes the deal because she has no choice. This is said in chapter 14 in another conversation between Hester and Roger. The bond here is referred to the Black man’s bond where Roger Chillingworth has been compared to the Black man and has made a deal with Hester. The word Black man is used once again by Mistress Hibbins in chapter 8. Mistress Hibbins has been suspected of being a witch. She says, “There will be a...
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...overarching mood or feeling. Many authors use symbolism to further foretell and capture the important elements of the story. Both Nathaniel Hawthorne in “Young Goodman Brown" and Shirley Jackson in “The Lottery’, use symbolism in these short stories. The stories both contain symbols describing evil. Hawthorne’s symbolism describes good versus evil, while Jackson's symbolism reflects the evil nature within society as a whole. The first two characters that Hawthorne introduces, Young Goodman Brown and his wife Faith, are both symbolic in their names. Brown's name symbolizes youth and good nature. Brown is a young man throughout the story, and his youth suggests that he has yet to be corrupted by the world and is still innocent. Hawthorne writes, "Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons on her cap, while she called to Goodman Brown" (Hawthorne 331). Faith’s name symbolizes the trust and virtue that is found within a good wife. It may also hint at the faith that Young Goodman Brown struggles to hang Haney 2 onto. As the story goes on, Goodman Brown meets his companion in the woods, he states, "Faith kept me back awhile" (Hawthorne 332). The use of his wife’s name here symbolizes his conscious not allowing him to welcome the evil of his “fellow-traveller” (Hawthorne 332). As he continues on his journey, he looks back at his wife and has a feeling of sadness as he is only able to see her pink ribbons...
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...“ The Birthmark “ The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a man who is a perfectionist and a women whos birthmark he see’s as her imperfection, which puts their relationship in a downward slope. Hes so focused on her imperfection that shes scared hes starting not to love her and she realizes she cant change the mark yet she fallows Aylmers ideas leading to her death. The Birthmark proves that a person cannot change who they are. This is shown through Aylmers focus on perfection. Aylmer is so focused on perfection it is making their relation ship not as strong, its putting them on a down hill slope. On page 3 the quote “ Dearest Gorgiana I have spent much thought upon the subject “ shows the reader how perfection is his main focus. Alymers so focused on Gorgiana’s imperfection that he’s not seeing his true love for her which is putting their relationship in a down hill slope. In gorgianas case I think her feelings on her birthmark are that she knows its their and she doesn’t really like it but she’s living with it, if he loves her he shouldn’t be just focused on that, so she might be thinking twice about how he is and that could be effecting their relationship with one another. Gorgiana’s fear of Aylmer losing love for her, because of this imperfection, is growing worse because she knows she cannot change it. “ Pray do not look at it again. I never can forget that convulsive Shudder. “ She knows the mark is ugly and wants him to have nothing to...
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...their husband, and treated as such. Women were forbidden from owning their own property, even if they were given the property from their father. In such a case, the land would be transferred in ownership to her husband. A woman’s place was in the home, to dutifully care for her husband and children. Her job was to cook, clean, and bear children. Interestingly, a wife was treated similarly to her children. Obedience toward the man of the home was necessary from both the children and the mother. In contradiction to all of the restriction and repression, the nineteenth century produced two of literatures strongest women. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Kate Chopin gave American society two women who actively defied their husbands and who possessed their own strong moral codes. With The Scarlet Letter published in 1850 and set in the seventeenth century, Nathaniel Hawthorne was taking a large risk in creating a novel detailing a woman’s adultery with the town’s minister and producing an illegitimate child in the process. Despite the treatment she receives, Hester does not waver in her promise to keep her lover secret, proving that she is a strong willful woman. As the century is coming to a close, Kate Chopin produced a work that sent shock waves through American society. The Awakening presents the story of Edna Pontellier, a woman who is deeply dissatisfied with her life, and ‘awakens’ her soul through a physical relationship with a man who is not her husband, and through her paintings. Edna...
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...Hon Eng 10 The Scarlet Letter Authors use literary devices such as foreshadowing, imagery, and symbolism to add depth to their stories. Foreshadowing is the use of phrases and words to hint at something that will occur in the future. In using imagery, authors use words and phrases to create mental pictures in the reader’s mind. Symbolism is the use of objects, gestures, and traits to represent entirely different from the literal sense. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorn utilizes symbolism to represent multiple layers of meanings throughout the novel. These symbols have more significant meanings than the mundane and express ideas and beliefs at a much deeper level. A symbol that is present throughout the novel is the scaffold. In construction, scaffolds are used to provide support. These scaffolds motivate and enable those standing on them to stay on task and purpose. In Hawthorne’s novel, the scaffold is the location where truth is to be supported and moved forward. It is the place where truth comes forth and is examined. Those who stand on the scaffold are forced to face the truth and evaluate what is in their hearts. The first time, the scaffold represents Hester’s shame in having a Pearl from an adulteress affair. The second time, Hester and Pearl join Dimesdale on the scaffold in his futile attempt in admitting his involvement with Hester. The last time the scaffold is mentioned in the novel, Dimesdale, openly admits the secret that he is Pearls father in the light...
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...How the Civil War Changed American Literature The 1860’s was a time of numerous talented writers: Whitman, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Melville. Major writers experienced the civil war in their day to day lives and this began to change what they believed and subsequently changed what they wrote. The abolitionists Thomas Wentworth Higginson studied Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose essays he explained as “starry with statements of absolute truth.” Emerson’s antislavery ideals helped influence positive war ideals. Emerson had spent decades writing about moral and cultural change and he viewed the war as necessary. However, not every writer was confident about the war like Emerson. For example, Nathaniel Hawthorne admitted in a letter the month after Fort Sumter that “I don’t quite understand what we are fighting for, or what definite result can be expected” (Eiselein 30). This uncertainty about the war was transferred into his writing. He traveled to Washington to write an article for The Atlantic and eventually published the essay “Chiefly about War-Matters,” in which he critiqued everything while also satirizing The Atlantic’s pro-war views (Eiselein 33). Besides Hawthorne, most of the northern writers of the nineteenth century supported the war at the beginning. However, the writer’s attitude towards the war began to shift after the battle of Shiloh and the succeeding horrific battles. The harsh realities of the war began to trouble the writers. For example, while reading Emerson’s...
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...The Puritan “A” Essay Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” tells the story of a woman, Hester Prynne, who conceived a child through an adulterous affair. As punishment for her sin she must wear a scarlet letter “A” on her dress. This story took place in the Puritan town of Boston; in the Puritan society “A” is a symbol of adultery or affair. Hester was forced to wear this letter as a constant reminder of her shame and so that everyone would know what she has done. The townspeople automatically began to mistreat her and her daughter so that they would leave and their society could remain pure. Although the original Puritan meaning of the letter “A” is adultery, throughout the story “A” takes on different meanings such as able and angel. Initially the Puritan society sees the “A” as a mark of punishment for sin but over time their outlook changes. In spite of all Hester endured throughout her years of being labeled as an adulterer she still remained strong. “Such helpfulness was found in her,—so much power to do, and power to sympathize,—that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” stated a member of society (13.3). She worked to redeem herself of the wrong she had done; she was a helper to those that were in need, sick, or poor. Her actions caused many members of society to change their viewpoint and no longer view her as an adulterer but as someone...
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...The Hawthorne defect: Persistence of a flawed theory “Like other hallowed but unproven concepts in psychology, the so -called Hawthorne effect has a life of its own.” By Berkeley Rice http://www.cs.unc.edu/~stotts/204/nohawth.html Most students of social psych are familiar with, or had better be if they want to pass. For decades, countless textbooks, Ph.D. theses, journal articles, and learned panels have cited it as a possible explanation for everything from why juvenile criminals in experimental program decide to go straight to why insomniacs sleep better in the laboratory. Whenever psychologists gather, one I apt to hear mention of the Hawthorne effect-even though, as it happens, the effect was never actually demonstrated by the original study. Proponents of the Hawthorne effect say that people who are singled out for a study of any kind may improve their performance or behavior not because of any specific condition being tested, but simply because of all the attention they receive. Those who mention the effect usually want to cast doubt on whether a given social innovation, instructional method, or therapy is really responsible for the change in behavior. Though the Hawthorne effect has been generalized to every kind of psychological study, it grew out of a pioneering series of experiments that tested the impact of improved working conditions on productivity. In typical accounts of the findings, current textbooks report: “To the surprise of the researchers, every innovation...
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...Our story today is called, "The Ambitious Guest. " It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Here is Harry Monroe with our story. Narrator: One December night, a long, long time ago, a family sat around the fireplace in their home. A golden light from the fire filled the room. The mother and father laughed at something their oldest daughter had just said. The girl was seventeen, much older than her little brother and sister, who were only five and six years old. A very old woman, the familys grandmother, sat knitting in the warmest corner of the room. And a baby, the youngest child, smiled at the fires light from its tiny bed. This family had found happiness in the worst place in all of New England. They had built their home high up in the White Mountains, where the wind blows violently all year long. The family lived in an especially cold and dangerous spot. Stones from the top of the mountain above their house would often roll down the mountainside and wake them in the middle of the night. No other family lived near them on the mountain. But this family was never lonely. They enjoyed each others company, and often had visitors. Their house was built near an important road that connected the White Mountains to the Saint Lawrence River. People traveling through the mountains in wagons always stopped at the familys door for a drink of water and a friendly word. Lonely travelers, crossing the mountains on foot, would step into the house to share a hot meal. Sometimes, the...
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...Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a linguist, traveler, and a romantic. While he very directly identified himself with the great traditions of European literature, he was a very commanding figure of, and is very deeply rooted in American culture and history. Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine on February 27th, 1807. In this seaport where he spent his childhood, he developed a strong love for the ocean that would influence his writing for the rest of his life. In fact, the sea inspired a whole collection of poems (to be published much later, of course), known as “The Seaside and the Fireside”, which portrayed not only his deep love for the sea by which he grew up, but another important underlying theme for his work: family. He would often slip pieces of Portland scenery into his later poems, such as “The Building of the Ship”, which draws on his familiarity with ship building in Maine. At only 13, Longfellow was an extremely skilled writer, and gained the attention of a local newspaper that published "The Battle of Lovell's Pond". This was a poem describing a battle that took place in 18th century Maine. This technique of incorporating American historical events into his poems would continue even until his last works, which became the patriotic classics we still read and quote today. Several great examples are “The Building of the Ship” (the poem does draw on Longfellow’s childhood enough for it to be mentioned above, however the symbolism is quite patriotic...
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...Introduction The Hawthorne effect is a term referring to the tendency of some people to work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment. Individuals may change their behavior due to the attention they are receiving from researchers rather than because of any manipulation of independent variables. This effect was first discovered and named by researchers at Harvard University who were studying the relationship between productivity and work environment. Researchers conducted these experiments at the Hawthorne Works plant of Western Electric. The study was originally commissioned to determine if increasing or decreasing the amount of light workers received increased or decreased worker productivity. SLIDE 1 The Hawthorne effect is a form of reactivity whereby subjects improve or modify an aspect of their behavior being experimentally measured simply in response to the fact that they know they are being studied, not in response to any particular experimental manipulation. The researchers found that productivity increased due to attention from the research team and not because of changes to the experimental variable. Hawthorne Works had commissioned a study to see if its workers would become more productive in higher or lower levels of light. The workers' productivity seemed to improve when changes were made and slumped when the study was concluded. It was suggested that the productivity gain occurred due to the impact of...
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...The Bible says, in John 10:10, "The thief only comes tosteal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."(NIV). If either one of the protagonists where actively guarding themselves against the thief, Satan, the endings would have been very different. Their knowledge of the Word, gave them a false confidence in themselves rather than a confidence in God and the presence of the Holy Spirit around them, allowing them to let their guard down and opening the door for the devil. In both short stories, "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Wofe's "The Child by Tiger", the protagonists are both religious men coming from very different backgrounds and time periods. They struggle not only with their earthly desires but also their beliefs in God and how they deal with the conflicts of their choices. The authors of these stories write of the spiritual conflicts suffered by the corresponding protagonists by using different points of view and different time periods, which creates its own stuggles. In the short story "Young Goodman Brown" the title character and protagonist, Goodman Brown grows up in the Catholic Church and comes from a reputation of generations of good, upstanding and religious men. The time period of this story is in the 1700's in Salem Massachusetts. This is probably why the witch's ceremony enters into Goodman's dream. This is a great way for the evil to antagonize Goodman. Whereas, in Wolfe's story, Dick...
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...compare and contrast essay Nathaniel Hawthornes "Young Good man Brown" and Thomas Wolfe's "The Child By Tiger" @@@@@ ENGL: Literature and Composition 2011 Robert James Tebow 15 December 2011 Introduction: I. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” and Thomas Wolfe’s short story “The Child by Tiger” show glaring similarities in many parts of each stories structure. Even though these stories were set in different time periods and different cultures, there is unity in their conflicts, themes, and author’s purpose. a. In Hawthorne’s piece the basic conflict arises early in the story, this is Goodman Brown’s choice to either join in the satanic activities or maintain his puritan beliefs. b. Goodman Brown realizes the public’s weakness in morality and faith. Brown experiences a great deal of disappointment especially when he sees his old bible teacher Goody Cloyse and Deacon Goonkin with the devil. c. Although Brown saw the people in his community participating in these activities that are contrary to his beliefs, he still was not sure if it was true or only a dream. d. My deepest sympathy goes out to the main character Goodman Brown. He distanced himself from the community after their alleged sinful activity according to Brown, but it could have been a dream which shows what can happen to those who have unproven assumptions of others. II. “The child by Tiger” wrote by Thomas Wolfe shows the ever present uncertainty...
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...The Puritans The Puritans once held a position of power among the religious world. Their beliefs were strict and they did not compromise their morals or standards for any outside individual. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Puritan religion reflects the attitude and values of the common man during that particular time period. The main belief among the Puritans was that they were God’s chosen people. In their eyes, they held supremacy over the average man. They believed in Pelagianism based on the Doctrine of Elect. This was the belief that man could redeem himself through acts of charity, religious devotion, and by living an unselfish life. Many of these strict beliefs were based on John Calvin’s principle of predestination. Predestination was that through God’s grace, one would reach heaven and that this special grace could not be earned; it was predetermined at birth. This principle of predestination forced Puritans to truly believe that their actions did not matter and their devotion to God had no bearing over their destiny. Puritans also believed in the degradation of one’s self, which meant that they had to make themselves worthy to God so that he would not instill his wrath on the Puritan community. They feared God and his special power, but considered themselves God’s special elects. Basically, they felt they had the right to perform any necessary deeds that would satisfy God’s will. Sin was thought of as an unavoidable element of human nature...
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...The Birthmark Nathanial Hawthorne does an excellent job of incorporating the human struggle for perfection in his short story, The Birthmark. Georgiana was a beautiful woman, “almost perfect”, as her husband told her repeatedly; however on her cheek was a small birthmark. While many men found this birthmark to be charming, her husband was repulsed by the small facial marking. “Ah, upon another face perhaps it might,” replied her husband; “but never on yours. No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection.” (Hawthorne, 1843, p1) Georgiana’s husband, Aylmer, began to obsess about this and actually would visibly shudder at the sight of her birthmark. This slowly but surely managed to break down Georgiana’s confidence to the point where she could not even look at herself in the mirror! Aylmer’s quest for human perfection resulted in Georgiana agreeing to have several scientific experiments performed on her in order to rid her of the birthmark. “Danger is nothing to me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust, -- life is a burden which I would fling down with joy. Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life!” (Hawthorne, 1843, p2) Georgiana’s life has become all about this small mark on her face. It no longer mattered what kind of person...
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