Hawthorn and the Scarlet Letter

[Unregistered]

Serious

[Blagernashif]

You sound like an smart cookie. For one, I agree, it was a very easy book to understand. And a great book, but not for everyone, so it is useless to convince people that think it stinks. I have tried. I was the only one in my class that thought it worth 2 cents. Kids. <br>The reason the movie was so mutalted was that the audiance didn't like the ending, they thought it too depressing. I thought it was a perfect ending. But the masses don't undertsand good liturature.<br>Nice to know someone is out there that likes the book, and not because it is a romance, and thinks the A stands for "premartital sex." Ha. Idiots.

[Unregistered]

the book is good~for some~<br>there's no point in snubbing the ppl who don't think so.<br>there's less point in bragging about ur oh-so-superior ability to comprehend the lord of the rings~<br>"i'm just one of those incredibly intelligent, bright, high school students who can read the lord of the rings in a week and understand it~~~"<br>oh please.<br>shut up.

[Mj]

Whatever you do in your life, please stay as focused and insightful as you are now. Reading works from all genres is what expands our thoughts and concepts as individuals. We may or may not like what we read, and we may or may not fully comprehend what the author is expressing. That is exactly what promotes and stimulates our own thoughts and perspectives.<br> At least getting through it will give you ideas and concepts, and when one matures, he or she may reflect on a certain book that was disliked in High School or College and decide to read it and be able to gain a deeper understanding. <br> Nathaniel Hawthorne lived in a different era, with a background that is unlike those who are in existence today. His writing represents the period in which he lived and how he perceived his family history and his life as it was.<br> It is what it is. Always look for more, and you will find it.<br>

[Kleo]

I completely agree with you. The Scarlet Letter is not a hard novel to understand. The only think that made it difficult was Hawthorne's tendancy to drift off and talk for two and a half pages about the flowers in the garden. Most of the things that Hawthorne babbled about wasn't needed to understand the plot but still nice to know. If you just skip about when he gets into one of those stages, you'll be alright. <br> I don't think that the movie was mutilated...they just didn't go into the same...eh...detail that Hawthorne did with the book. And of course the ending was depressing. It was a depressing book. I don't think it would have been the same had the ending not been depressing.

[Unregistered]

I think that in making snive comments like how you are so intelligent and can understand everything just makes people more fed up with you and with your opinions. I am one of the many people who greatly dislike 'The Scarlet Letter' It doesn't make us any less intelligent it just means that we need books with excitment that can captivate an audience, not bore them to sleep. The book did have a lot of underlying and hidden meanings that can make the reader think...but just because a book makes you think, does not mean it is a masterpiece that we should be forced to read.<br>

[Jessica]

I totally agree with you. It took me way to long to read the first section, The Custom House. The only reason he wrote it was because he thought the book wasnt long enough to be printed. It took a little more than three or four chapters to get interesting, more like ten.....but its your opinion....wa wa wa, to those of you who who cant handle reading this book for your AP English class. I'm going to be a sophmore in High School this coming year and I understood most if not all of it.....and isn't AP English an elective class??? I mean it isn't a relatively long book-even though it took me ages to read it-- The Lord of the Rings was lengthy but readable, its the same with the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan (similar to LOTR).....You can handle the scarlet letter--all you need is a dictionary handy, a pen, and paper (ok you don't really need the last two, but the first is a definite must).

[Jessica]

I don't know about the rest of you who have been having an especially hard time reading The Scarlet Letter, but I must say, that if you are going to read it, DON'T READ THE INTRODUCTION!!! Or at least, not until after you've read the book. The introduction is a story in itself. Reading an introduction, such as the one in The Scarlet Letter, causes readers to for biased opinions early on, before reading the actual book. <br> I also want to say that I sincerely hope that none of you are college students. I myself am a highschool student, and I am shocked at the complaints of boredom that some of you have posted. This is NOT a difficult book to comprehend, and the archaic language is especially easy, compared with other works of literature. Oh, and if any of you were thinking that you could watch the movie instead of reading the book, I would think again. Other than the title, characters, and time setting, the movie DOESN"T resemble the book in any way. It is one of the most mutilated adaptions of any book I have EVER SEEN. <br> As a last note, for those of you who less than enjoy this book, or who don't like reading at all, it does pick up after three or four chapters...<br>And if any of my comments seemed rude or overly critical, then forgive me. I'm just one of those strange people from an arts-oriented highschool who managed to read and comprehend Lord of the Rings and all of the included appendices in less than a week and still comprehend and remember all of the minute details.. :-P

[cody10]

Okay... The Scarlet Letter is actually a pretty good book.. if you don't like mind bogglers than it will suck for you.... There are times when you can easily get lost and you seriously need to pull out a dictionary... and then there are times when you can follow the story... you may want to re-read some of the parts a couple times.... It took me awhile to get into because I had read the first 3 chapters and I was bored and than it took all my will power to keep going... My mom saw that I was reading it and she said she could help me with it because she saw the movie... I laughed so hard because the movie is nothing like the book... if you have to take a quiz for a class you are reading it ... don't watch the movie!!! DO NOT READ THE AFTERWORD UNTIL YOU FINISH THE BOOK ... That was my dumbest mistake during my reading of the book.... I am one of those people that like to read the last paragraph of the book or the end note before I start reading the book... and I started reading the afterword.. i had not idea you weren't supposed to know who the guy she committed "A"dultery with was supposed to be one of the thinking parts of the book.... I find it a little comical that it seems books with the word "Scarlet" in the title have symbols and hidden characters.. for example the Scarlet Pimpernel .. and of course the Scarlet Letter.... BTW for those of you bragging about being able to comprehend the book so easily and stuff.. congratulations but you really shouldn't be making fun of people you are having a hard time with it... and really it isn't a hard book.. I am in 8th grade (13) and I can understand it!!! JUST READ IT ALREADY