In the novel, Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is marginalized due to society’s
intolerance of her adultery. One modern example of this same type of intolerance
is the treatment of Larry King, a 15-year-old homosexual boy who was bullied
and killed by a student in his school.
Hester is accused of adultery, cheating on her spouse, and having a baby
with her new man. In the Scarlet Letter society, adultery is against the law and
when someone commits adultery, the community puts a Scarlet letter A on that
person’s chest in front of the community. Nathanial Hawthorne uses a comparison
between law and religion to show that Hester is marginalized by her sin: “A
people among whom religion and law were almost identical” (Chapter 2). This
quote explains how law and religion are the same in this society. Hester was also
marginalized by how the punishment was given to her: “mildest and severest acts
of public discipline were alike made venerable and awful” (Chapter 2). Hester’s
punishment that she received was embarrassing because she obtained the Scarlet
Letter A in front of the whole community including her friends and people she
knew. The last case of this issue is loss of faith because people can’t trust one to
do favors for them: “such loss of faith is ever one of the saddest results of sin”
(Chapter 5). Adultery is one of many crimes that have changed from being against
the law in some societies to becoming something that people just do because they
don’t know better and it is frowned upon by many people.
Similar to Hester’s situation, Lawrence King, a homosexual boy who was
shot in the back of the head, was marginalized by his “sin” because he was crossdressing (dressing as the opposite sex) at his school. Two days after witnessing
Lawrence King’s attire, a student had shot him. One reason that this student shot
Lawrence was that he wore high heels and boys don’t usually wear high heels,
only girls do. This student’s solution to Larry’s cross-dressing was to shoot him.
Another reason why this student shot Larry was that Larry sent this student a
Valentine’s Day letter expressing his feelings toward the student. The student was
very embarrassed and he wanted Larry to go away forever. Finally, the last reason
why this student shot Larry was that he was talking about the student to his
friends all the time and kids in the school associated the student with being
homosexual with Larry. The student got very mad and knew he had to do
something. Larry King, like Hester, was an innocent person who was
marginalized by his “sin” which in today’s society is now tolerant of it.
Hester Prynne was marginalized by her society for committing the crime
of adultery, which her community saw as a sin. Like Hester, the public also
marginalized Larry King because his schoolmates thought being homosexual was
a sin, and Larry was always getting bullied and embarrassed in front of everybody
in his school. I can relate to the topic of marginalization on both sides of the issue.
I have been guilty of stereotyping Muslims after September 11th; however, I have
also worried that my cousin, who is a gay college student, may face bullying.
Only by education and understanding others can we start to prevent this historic
issue in American society.