The Scarlet Letter ch 5-7

While reading chapter 5, I began to feel even more sorry for Hester than I already did. The people in the town would not give her a break. It came to a point where she was considered a ". . . symbol. . . in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion" (76). This chapter triggered my emotions and opinions on her life, but Hester's own emotions weren't portrayed as frequently as I thought they should have been. Also, I do not get the part where the narrator explains that people often return to places where significant events took place. Is this because people are nostalgic and like to revisit these places to somehow relive the event they are thinking of? I also relate to Hester Prynn's situation, as in feeling like she deserves all this as punishment for doing something wrong. Although she isn't in the right, I feel as if the town and especially the women are blowing every out of proportion. The fact that Hester becomes a seamstress and provides clothes for poor people, yet the poor people even look down on her, is terrible. In my opinion, everyone needs to get over the whole situation because she isn't the only person who has committed a crime.

Chapter 6 made me grow to love Pearl. I was hesitant whether to love her or not because she is the cause of the whole situation, after all. Readers got to see Pearl's personality come out, even though she's still very young. It was also interesting to see how Hester's daughter would grow up under her circumstances. I expected Pearl to be more quiet and to herself, being that everyone shunned her and her mother. I was surprised to see that she was feisty and had a mind of her own. It was just very sad, because as they mentioned in the novel, the first thing Pearl noticed about her mother was the scarlet A on her chest. I somehow felt like this was a symbol of Pearl having to grow up and adjust to a different lifestyle based on the aftermath of her mother's actions.

Chapter 7 had me focused on the deeper meanings of what was portrayed in the story. The fact that Pearl is dressed in a scarlet red dress is very significant. To me, it symbolized her as the scarlet letter, a constant reminder of the incident. Pearl is the bittersweet outcome of it all. Also, when Hester looked in the mirror, the scarlet letter was distorted and exaggerated, making it the focal point of her appearance. This in itself, is self explanatory. The emblem has taken over her whole life. Hester has lost herself through all of this, and no one really takes the time to get to know Hester or her daughter just because of her reputation. The themes of guilt, blame, and judgement is of great significance throughout this whole book, and especially in the recent chapters and I'm interested to see how the people will react to Hester and Pearl's actions later on. Will the people eventually get over it or will they continue to play the blame game? 

The video is Blame Game by Kanye West ft. John Legend. Somehow, I feel like it portrays Hester's feelings towards Pearl. Although it's clear she loves her, there's an underlying feeling that Pearl's the cause the downward spiral that led to Hester's life being the way it is.