Humans-Inheritantly good or bad?
Do most books make you question whether humans are inherently bad or good? For the most part, I don’t agree that “literature opens a dark window on the soul, revealing more about what is bad in human nature than what is good.” The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible both reveal how people in oppressive environments can withstand the pressure and act courageously. The main characters in these two stories prove their bravery and show great pride by resisting the criticism and anger of their communities. The scaffold displays the public humiliation impressed in Puritan society, in The Scarlet Letter. It holds symbolic importance in the character’s display of integrity and the characters on the scaffold show true morality and pride. The Scarlet Letter is actually built around the scaffold. The three scaffold scenes in this novel serve as valid dividers. In Chapter 2, Hester emerges from the prison, holding Pearl and wearing her embroidered “A” on her chest. She walks to the scaffold, where she is supposed to be condemned as a consequence for her sin.