Theme Of Freedom In Nathaniel Hawthorne's When She Woke

In When She Woke, Hillary Jordan reimagines Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, as a more familiar reality integrated with a radical and dystopian twist. Convicted criminals within the book must genetically alter the color of their skin to correspond with the severity of their crime, after of which they must try to survive in a world that can form bias and treat them based on such. Due to the strong prevalence of religion in the society, abortion has been equated to murder, which is what the main character, Hannah Payne, is found guilty of. Forced to exhibit her sin for the world to see, she endures harsh treatment from those who form judgements based on appearances and personal beliefs. Because of her experiences, Hannah begins to question her once strongly rooted faith, as well as her designated roles in relation to other people, which ultimately serves to portray the book’s message of the importance of freedom from limitations and self-acceptance. Throughout the novel, Hannah struggles with meeting the expectations of those she …show more content…
She grew as a person to the point where she chose to leave Aiden Hale because she didn’t want to live in the box that he formed based on who she used to be. Subconsciously, she broke down the walls of the boxes that enclosed her, from the box that her parents and religion set, which she broke when she became a mistress and aborted her child, to the one defined by her red skin, which is hinted at as the book ends with her journey to Canada to reverse the affects and return her skin to a normal color. This inner conflict between the person she used to and was expected to be and the person she has become as a result of her experiences serves as the driving factor in her evolution as a person, and she would rather leave everyone and everything behind in order to nourish her newly developed character than go back to her old