Entry 4

Chapter 
Lens: Reader Response
Prompt: Responding and Reflecting

Is it true? Is Sean going to write a serious entry? Well, I'm feeling super cereal right now. So maybe.

So far, I've managed to read the remainder of the Sparknotes for "Scarlet Letter," (I know, I know, I deserve a round of applause), and I now feel like I can respond adequately to this prompt. Throughout the story, we see people who are punished, either by society or by themselves, for the sins they have committed. From my own personal experiences in religion, this has not been the case. We don't go around branding people for their sins as the Puritans of the past did. Today, Christianity is much more focused on the forgiveness, rather than condemnation. The advantage to this would be that people are living more like the Bible intended. Now, I don't claim to know the Bible word for word, but what I do know that Jesus Christ, the base of Christianity, was a very forgiving person. In fact, there was one point in the Bible where a woman was about to be stoned, (like, have a bunch of rocks thrown at her until she died, not offered marijuana), for adultery, and Jesus stated that he who was without sin would be allowed to cast the first stone. As a result, no one was able to condemn the woman, because none of the people in the crowd were without sin. The story of Scarlet Letter is very similar in many ways. Hester was a woman who committed adultery, and was a sinner in both her own eyes and the eyes of the town. However, instead of forgiving Hester, the town decided to condemn her by forcing her to wear a scarlet "A" on her clothes at all time. In addition, they also shunned her from society, claiming that she was under the control of the devil. I believe this is the main source of conflict in "Scarlet Letter." When people are ignorant to their own religion, they begin to act out in the name of said religion, without actually following what it teaches. Now, I'm not saying that what Hester did was correct, but it was hypocritical for the people of the town to condemn her. Here's a quote from the Bible that accurately describes the situation: "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." (Matthew 7:5).