Lavender's AP Lit Class Blog
Friday, October 29, 2010
Pre-Pearl vs Post Pearl
I am thinking of writing about Pearl and her additude before Dimmsdale's death and after. Before she was a wiley elf child who was an outcast of society and had to be her own best friend, and she was always faifull to her mother. When she first met Dimmsdale out of soiciety and he kissed her on the head she ran to the brook so she could scrub it clean. But when he was dying on the scaffold and finally admitted his crimes Preal kissed him on the lips and even started to cry. This also goes with before, it seemed like she didn't care for other human's, but things that were free and wild she didn't want to hurt. In the future she knows human happiness and love and not being ashamed or an outcast all the time. As Hawthorne says on page 155, "the naughty child picked up her apron full of pebbles, and, crepping from rock to rock after these small seafowl, displayed remarkable dexterity in pelting them. One little gray bird, with a white breast, Pearl was almost sure, had been hit by a pebble, and fluttered away with a broken wing. But then the elf chilf sighed , and gave up her sport; because it grieved her to have done harm to a little being that was as wild as the sea breeze, or as wild as Pearl." Pearl has a true compation for nature before, and also a hatred for society. She liked to pick fights with children and would make an A for herself out of seaweed, the very thing nobody wants. But after Dimmsdale's death, after the promise, she got married and had children, with (for what we know) no adultry. This shows she had to conform to society a little bit, even if she was still attached to nature.
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this is a good idea. also you should maybe say how pear represents the relationship between hester and dimsdale.
ReplyDeleteI like the second half of your argument. it seems pretty well thought out. The whole idea of Pearl changing after Dimsdale dies seems like a good one. The first part I think contrasts this a little. If Pearl were relly a lover of nature and hater of society, wouldn't she have accepted Dimsdlae's kiss in the woods but not in the town? Maybe you are adressing this in your post but it wasn't really clear to me. To me, the way you have included it now seems to weaken your argument. Maybe you could say that this whole event sort of shocked her into having to accept society.
ReplyDeleteDale,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a very good approach to the novel (one that focuses on the role Pearl plays in developing the book's larger meaning), but I wonder if Pearl really changes, of if she follows the narrator's injunction to "Be true! Be true!" She seems to stay true to herself throughout the novel (unlike any of the other main characters, except perhaps Hester--though she has her lapses, as when she keeps Chillingworth's identity a secret). It's notable that Pearl's kiss comes AFTER Dimmesdale has confessed. Like the sunshine that would not shine on the scarlet letter (given that it's a symbol of society), until Dimmesdale reveals his true nature, Pearl cannot accept him.
Make any sense?