Back to School Book 1: The Scarlet Letter

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions for 2021 since COVID has made me really weird about planning for the future, but I did spend some time thinking about what goals I could set... if I were to set any goals. Now that it's February, I'm ready to commit to a few goals for 2021 (Chinese New Year works better for me anyway, since January 1st is my birthday, and who wants to start resolutions on their birthday?) 

For a while I've wanted to re-read (or read for the first time) some of the books from my school days. This includes books that were required as well as books that were optional (such as those that were on a list of approved reading for certain assignments). I thought about setting a goal to read one school book per month, but then I decided I might need a little leeway, so here is my first goal for 2021: 

Read ten "school" books. 

Before I could commit to this goal, I needed to dabble in it a bit to see if I was really up for it. I made a list of books and chose my first one: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

The Scarlet Letter was required reading in my 11th grade honors English class. I don't remember the curriculum very well for that year, but I think we also read The Crucible, so it must've been very "colonial America heavy."

I recall that I struggled to understand the writing in The Scarlet Letter. I fell behind in the reading and didn't really finish the book. I remember feeling interested in the story (or at least what I gleaned from it via class discussions) and thinking, "I should read this when I'm a grown-up." Since I'm a grown-up, my time has come. 

I remembered the premise - Hester Prynne is sentenced to wear a red 'A' on her chest for the rest of her life because she has committed adultery. I also remembered who her lover is, but that's about it. 

I started reading the book last week and was disappointed to find that I can't comprehend the writing any better now than I could when I was 16. All I really got out of it was that it took 30 sentences to explain "Hester stood on a scaffold for three hours," and it repeatedly used the words "ponderous" and "perchance." I was half-way through the book and frankly, had no clue what was going on. I gave up for a few days and figured it was okay to not pursue this reading goal after all, but then it kept eating away at me that I hadn't finished it. I came back to it decided to start reading the spark notes alongside the book (so ya know... double the reading...) and I was shocked to discover all the great plot points that had gone right over my head (and here come the **spoilers**). For example, I completely missed the fact that Chillingworth was Hester's husband, and I kept wondering when it would reveal that Dimmesdale was the father of Hester's baby, when it already had.

I proceeded with the book by reading the spark notes for each chapter before reading the chapter so I could figure out what was going on. I'm embarrassed that I had to do it that way, but it is what it is. At least I was able to really delve into the story, and the spark notes included a lot of details about the themes and symbolism of the book that I wouldn't have concluded on my own. It made the experience better. I love me some good symbolism, but I kind of have to have it spelled out for me (for this reason, I really struggle with poetry - someone has to explain it all to me, and it makes me feel so dumb). 

In the end, I'm glad I stuck it out! What a tale! WHAT! A! TALE! I loved the exploration of how society views sin and the dichotomy between science and faith as portrayed through Chillingworth (a doctor) and Dimmesdale (a priest). I gained a much better understanding of the character of Dimmesdale. In high school, I thought of him as an antagonist since he refused to reveal his part in Hester's "crime." As a teenager, I couldn't comprehend his turmoil and suffering as he tried to reconcile his position in the community with his actions and how he "lacked energy to grasp the better fortune that seemed within his reach" (page 122).

And Hester? I can't really figure her out. She was somewhat set apart from the society, but at the same time, she was an integral part of it. She wore the 'A' boldly, and yet, still instinctively covered it with her hand. 

"She felt or fancied, then, that the scarlet letter had endowed her with a new sense. She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing, that it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts" (page 52).

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While I'm on the topic of reading, I read the eBook of The Scarlet Letter on the Kindle app for iOS. Our county library lends eBooks through Kindle, and you don’t have to have an actual Kindle (not everyone knows this, so I’m just putting it out there). Let me show you a feature of the Kindle app that I love (in case you're not aware). 

You may recall that I have a fondness for looking up word definitions. The Kindle app makes it so easy to look up words while you read (which I did a lot in The Scarlet Letter because classic literature is full of words that make me go "Huh??)

While reading in the Kindle app, you can hold your finger on a word (the same way you would if you were going to start highlighting a passage), and a little dictionary box will come up like so:

You can touch "Google search" and it will search the word, but an even better option is to download the free dictionary (as prompted in the box), and then, any time you want to know the definition of the word, you just touch the word and BAM!

DEFINITIONS!

Now I'm going to go around saying my hair is getting hoary! Thank you for that, Nathaniel Hawthorne.