The 22nd Annual Book Report Competition for Secondary School Students
Black Cat English Reader Series
Title: The Scarlet Letter
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Publisher: The Commercial Press (H.K.) Ltd No. of Words: 846
If you are a Christian, you will firmly believe that all of us have sin. We are
sinners. No matter how holy we are, we dare not say that we haven’t sin. Even though
you are innocent, can you way you haven’t tell any lies or hurt your friends? we
always regard someone as a bad guy by if they have or haven’t done anything.
However, if we can say that they will never do anything to be praised? No! They also
do good things. What I want to say is no matter how innocent a person is, he may also
do something bad that other people cannot expect. Maybe you don’t completely agree
with me and The Scarlet Letter》is a strong proof.
《The Scarlet Letter》was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, an important and
famous author in 19th century. In addition,《The Scarlet Letter》is one of Nathaniel
Hawthorne’s masterpieces published in 1850.When《The Scarlet Letter》was first
published, it was immediately recognized as a classic. As《The Scarlet Letter》
involves universal themes such as love, sin, evil, revenge and hate makes.
The background of《The Scarlet Letter》was set in the 17th century Puritan Boston.
At that time, Boston was a new world and a new colony.《The Scarlet Letter》was a
tragic love story which took place at that time. Hester Prynne, who initially was an
ordinary woman, but was condemned by all Bostonians one day. As she gave birth to
an illegitimate child----Pearl. No one knew who Pearl’s father was. And Hester
refused to tell the secret to Bostonians. It was very strange. After that, Hester was
punished and had to wear the secret letter‘A’as a sign of her sin.
Roger chillingworth who is Hester’s husband but wasn’t Pearl’s father came to
Boston and knew what happen about Hester. He was angry when he knew that Hester
to gave birth to an illegitimate child. He decided to settle in Boston and changed his
name to try to discover who Hester’s secret lover is. Roger had chosen Reverend
Dimmesdale who was a pastor as his spiritual guide. The Reverend was very popular
and was worshipped by Bostonians. At about that time, Reverend’s health began to
fail. His deteriorating health was connected with the problems of the mind. He was
burdened with a hideous secret. Roger discovered that he was Hester’s secret lover.
He wanted revenge but Hester tried to persuade him to give up but Roger didn’t listen.
Finally Reverend revealed his secret to all Bostonians and died afterwards. Hester and
Pearl left. The story became a legend throughout Boston.
In this story, I extremely appreciate Hester because she was very brave and
independent. I think she was a heroine. Although she was punished to wear a shame
sign‘A’, she didn’t give up. In contrast, she brought up Pearl on her own. She is
evidently the master of her own destiny. I think current teenagers should learn this
personality. If we have positive manner when facing problems, we can tackle
problems easily and control our own fate.
After reading the story, I have learned a lesson. It is better to forgive one’s sin
than to take revenge. Finally you just hurt yourself. As you put all the time on revenge
and your heart would not feel well during that. And if he is really hurt by you, you
will feel guilty in your life like Roger chillingworth. However, it is not the most
important reason. The most important reason is if you forgive someone, you will get a
meaningful friendship. It is more worthwhile to get a friend than to gain an enemy. No
matter how innocent a person is, he will also do something bad. In the story, we have
such a man. He is Reverend Dimmesdale. Reverend is a person who is identified is
good and innocent, but he didn’t tell the secret and receive his punishment when
Hester was made to stand on the scaffold. He was Hester’s secret lover and Pearl’s
father. However, he didn’t take up his responsibility to take care of Hester and Pearl.
As he knew that if he confesses his evil act, he will lose his position in society. I do
not appreciate his behavior because everyone should be responsible for his or her own
behavior. In reality, if anyone commits a crime, he will have punishment. Nowadays,
many teenagers take drugs; they didn’t consider the consequence and always think
that they will not be punished. At the end, Reverend finally died revealing his secret.
Maybe it is his punishment. No matter what we want to do, we should do it according
to our conscience. It is a precious lesson that I have learned from this story.
The book is very meaningful and it reflects many aspects of the human mind
such ads love, sex, evil and revenge. I would recommend this book to all my friends
so that they can learn more about themselves.