September 14, 2010 Archives

This is the section of the book where the relationships between the characters start to take solid shape, and Hawthorne makes these points numerous times.

When we aim to interpret a literary work, our task has to go beyond listing our emotional reactions, our gut reactions, to the events of the plot or the setting.

• "The authorities should not have been so harsh with Hester."
• "The townspeople are slow to appreciate Hester's charity; they should have recognized and appreciated her charity."
  

Well, of course. But Hawthorne created this whole scenario - the strict society - in order to test the character of his sympathetic heroine.

Prediscussion Podcast 4.mp3

By 5pm Monday 9am Tuesday, complete a brief online exercise that prepares you for Wednesday's class. (Read the text assigned for today first.)

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them at the bottom of this page. (That will generate an e-mail to me.) You are also welcome to come by during my office hours, or make an appointment.

1) Read Chapters 13-18 of The Scarlet Letter.

2) Post a quotation and comment on your own blog, as usual.

3) Submit that blog entry by posting a link from the course web page to your new blog entry. (You can either paste the web address in the box labeled "URL" -- which will turn your name into a link that points to that address; or, you can just paste the web address into your comment, and when the comment is published, it will be a hyperlink. Either procedure is fine.)

(The previous steps are nothing special... I ask you to do this for all readings. If you haven't done so, remember to catch up and post comments for all the other readings listed as "texts" -- except for the poems we looked at in class on the first day.)

4) Do some pre-writing.  (For what exactly goes here, see the "Prewriting Activity" section, below.)

5) A 200-word paragraph, using evidence from the novel to defend a debatable interpretation of some issue that arises in chapters 13-18. (You are welcome to quote from other chapters to support your point, but the main idea should focus on something that is prominent at this stage in the book.)

6) Bring your pre-writing activity to class (in whatever form it took), and upload your 200-word paragraph to Turnitin.com ("200-word paragraph"). Deadline: 9am Tuesday.


Prewriting Activity