In Puritan times, having a child with a man other than your husband is frowned upon. In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pearl is a child out of wedlock. Hester, Pearl’s mother, had Pearl with a man who she was not married to and the town looked at her as an adulterer. Hester had to wear a scarlet A on her breast as punishment. Pearl is aware of the letter but does not understand the meaning behind, being that she is still a small child. Throughout the novel Pearl finds ways to escape the influence of the letter, and from this process her mentality and spirituality is revealed. Hawthorne shows his view of the world and acculturation through Pearl’s character. `
Pearl’s name derives from the fact that she is Hester’s great price …show more content…
From an early age, Pearl discerned the fact that she was different than the other kids and that all she had was her mother. The kids in her community took after their puritan elders and ignored Pearl. When they did approach her, Pearl would throw stones at them and make a witch-like noise. As a result of not having any companionship with people her own age, Pearl played alone and made up her own games: “Her baby-voice served a multitude of imaginary personages,old and young, to talk withal. The pine-trees, aged, black, and solemn, and flinging groans and other melancholy utterances on the breeze, needed little transformation to figure a Puritan elders; the ugliest weeds of the garden were their children, whom Pearl smoke down and uprooted, most unmercifully” (78-79). This game that Pearl created is her form of therapy to deal with her mother’s scarlet letter and what it had done to her childhood. Her mother’s sin caused Pearl to have a childhood where she was alone and didn’t have any friends. This compelled Pearl to rely
Pearl’s name derives from the fact that she is Hester’s great price …show more content…
From an early age, Pearl discerned the fact that she was different than the other kids and that all she had was her mother. The kids in her community took after their puritan elders and ignored Pearl. When they did approach her, Pearl would throw stones at them and make a witch-like noise. As a result of not having any companionship with people her own age, Pearl played alone and made up her own games: “Her baby-voice served a multitude of imaginary personages,old and young, to talk withal. The pine-trees, aged, black, and solemn, and flinging groans and other melancholy utterances on the breeze, needed little transformation to figure a Puritan elders; the ugliest weeds of the garden were their children, whom Pearl smoke down and uprooted, most unmercifully” (78-79). This game that Pearl created is her form of therapy to deal with her mother’s scarlet letter and what it had done to her childhood. Her mother’s sin caused Pearl to have a childhood where she was alone and didn’t have any friends. This compelled Pearl to rely