Comparing Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter And Tim O Brien
Nathaniel Hawthorne claims in his novel, The Scarlet Letter, that the moral of the story is to “be true be true be true!” (387). This is of course referring to Dimmesdale’s decline and demise that seemed to stem from his hidden secret, but does being true always mean repeating stories with the exact facts? In “Good Form” by Tim O’Brien, he claims that “story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth” (115)-- that sometimes altering the story of what really happened can produce more truth than a simple recitation. “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” by Tim O’Brien, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “How to Tell a True War Story” by Tim O’Brien, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, …show more content…
Often, exaggerated stories perpetuated by society have a more profound effect on the listeners than a relation of actual facts.
Stories are more compelling and powerful when the teller does not limit themselves to perfect accuracy. In “Sweetheart,” O’Brien states that Rat Kiley exaggerates his stories to “heat up the truth, to make it burn so hot that you would feel exactly what he felt” (56 pdf). Rat understands that to convey the truth of his story, he had to evoke an emotional response, and for Rat, “facts were formed by sensation, not the other way around” (56). As third-party listeners, we often insufficiently imagine what the storyteller may have been through. The only way to counteract this natural lack of empathy is by exaggerating the story (“multiplying by maybe”) to try and recreate the actual truth of the story within the listener’s mind. In Scarlet Letter, there are many stories circling the imprint on Dimmesdale’s chest, which Hawthorne states are all “conjectural”(230). Although Dimmesdale spoke the same words, revealed the same mark, and performed the same actions in front of everyone that day, the crowd left with countless different versions of the story to tell, some even suggesting that there was no
Rhetorical Precis Of 1984 By Malcolm Gladwell
1477 Words | 6 PagesGladwell’s concern for the discrepancies being allowed in our society and highlighting specific cases to make the reader hold on to the information and displaying his use of common values to invoke the audience’s emotions of sadness, happiness, and fear. When the audience is so involved with the story and statistics about the topic, it can be hard to catch the emotional manipulation he utilizes, especially when Gladwell provides supporting evidence for the chapters because the reader is usually focusing on facts alone. Gladwell heavily uses emotion in his diction and examples because if the audience is moved by the story of Marita, a hard working middle-schooler in the KIPP program in New York, applying herself and making up for the “missing
The Arduousness Of Lies In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
521 Words | 3 PagesMaking Connections – The Arduousness of Lies Lies are often told spontaneously as the result of troubling events occurring to someone or something and are often used to manipulate segments of these events in order to attempt to alleviate the trouble or punishment given to the causer of the event. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the character Dimmesdale committed a sin and has withheld this secret for the rest of the town, while he watched the other perpetrator of the sin be punished, ridiculed, and isolated by the town of Boston. The pressure and guilt of lies is often too great of a force to withstand, judging by a past life experience, Dimmesdale reviled his secret to alleviate this dreadful feeling of pressure and guilt. At the age
Literary Techniques Used In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'
1300 Words | 6 PagesCustom House: The story takes place in Massachusetts during the late seventeenth century. Chapter 1: The setting of the story takes place in a colony of the New World called Boston. It appears that a lot of description is put into the jail as well.
Catcher In The Rye And O Brien Analysis
1157 Words | 5 PagesKa Ling Lee Mr. Rodocker English 11 10 December 2015 Both J.D. Salinger and Tim O’Brien express “truth” in their novels “The Catcher In The Rye” and “The Things They Carried”. But there are some differences between the ways they do so. “The Catcher In The Rye” is a story that is first-person narrated by Holden Caulfield, while “The Things They Carried” is also mostly in O’Brien’s first-person narration but sometimes in third-person perspective. First-person narratives allow readers to know exactly about the viewpoint and feelings only of the narrator. Readers would be like directly “connected” to the protagonist’s mind as they know all his ideas and thoughts in his head.
The Corruption Of Children In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
341 Words | 2 PagesIn The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn, children play a variety of roles. They are presented as more perceptive and honest than adults because children learn from society and the people around them. The people around them play important roles in the child's development because they influence how that child thinks. Children are the perfect representation of the corruption and goodness in society. A quote from WEB Dubois says, "Children learn from what you are than what you teach," This is evident in The Scarlet Letter.
Thomas King You Ll Never Believe What Happened Essay
942 Words | 4 PagesThe sad thing about stories is that “once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world” (King10), that plane with no survivors cannot be taken back, the article in the news about the bus that flipped is read by thousands of people and cannot be taken back. The author of the “Truth About Stories” never says whether he thinks that not being able to take back stories is a good or bad thing, but rather he states that “you have to be careful with the stories you tell. And you have to watch out for the stories you are told” (King,10) because they will shape who you
Free Essay: The Forest In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter
2286 Words | 10 PagesMomentary Identity: the Forest in the Scarlet Letter “So speaking, she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves. [...] The stigma gone, […] the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit”(185) . Away from society and its beliefs, Hester is finally able to take off the scarlet letter and be a person not burdened by the stigma society places upon her. At the surface, the forest seems to be a magical place where one can shed the appearance that society forces them to assume and be their true self.
Theme Of Perception In To Kill A Mockingbird
1877 Words | 8 PagesAt this point in the story, the reader begins to sense the theme of inaccurate perception and false accusation, for the
Character Association In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
663 Words | 3 PagesThe Scarlet Letter: Character Association A lot of the characters described in The Scarlet Letter have similar characteristics towards one another. However, their roles in the book are very different. But they all have one thing in common; they were all involved in a horrific act of romance. Many people can associate themselves with a character from a novel.
A Hero's Journey In The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne
999 Words | 4 PagesIn The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, on June 1642, in the Puritan town of Boston, a crowd gathered to witness the punishment of a young woman, Hester Prynne. She has been found guilty of adultery and must wear a scarlet A on her dress as a sign of shame. Despite her mistakes, she was a classic independent hero to herself and her daughter. She works through the six stages of a hero journey through strength and perseverance. In The Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus goes through a hero’s journey just like Hester.
Irony And Values In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
519 Words | 3 PagesIn today's society, it's rare to see someone putting other people’s requirements before their own. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, “ The Scarlet Letter, ” embodies the statement that what we value can be determined by what we imitate. Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale show what their values are by making offerings for the benefit of others. Hester Prynne sacrifices her life as she knew it for the life of her child while Arthur Dimmesdale sacrifices his identity to be in the life of his lover and child. Using several rhetorical strategies, Hawthorn reveals what the character’s offerings are and to connect their conduct to candid their reasons and values.
Reading Response To Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'
1146 Words | 5 PagesAmanda Vicente The Scarlet Letter Reading Response AP English Language Period J 16 August 2016 Journal Entry 1: Chapters 1-2 In The Scarlet Letter, the author sets a mood from the beginning of the book. The setting is old and beat up in front of an aged wooden prison with judgmental Puritans ready to tear a women apart. The Puritans are hypocrites and the author portrays that in the story.
Societal Pressures In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'
722 Words | 3 PagesThe exploration of societal pressures. Life can be separated into two equal parts totally independent from one another. The inner self, being the innermost thoughts and feelings of the individual, and the outer self, how the individual decides to conduct itself around the others in society. Often times one of these parts takes control of the other, suppressing its partner. The suppression is often not of equal frequency because of the obligation humans feel to be liked and to fit in causes the outermost self to be given the most thought and worry.
Irony And Symbolism In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
477 Words | 2 PagesThe Meanings behind the Scarlet Letter In The Scarlet Letter, the letter “A” becomes a lot more than a part of the alphabet. The letter “A” is a symbol that has many different meanings throughout the scarlet letter. The letter “A” was used as the symbol of sin which was adultery. The people who committed the sin were Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale.
The Introductory Section Of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
132 Words | 1 PagesThis passage originates from the introductory section of The Scarlet Letter, the narrator points of interest how he chose to compose his version of Hester Prynne's story. Part of his enthusiasm for the story is personal, he descends from the first Puritan pilgrims of Massachusetts. Like Hester, the narrator both insists and opposes Puritan values. He is headed to compose, yet the Puritan in him sees the pointlessness in such an attempt: what great can happen to form this story? However, in that inquiry lies the significance of this story, which investigates the contention between individual motivations and systematized social codes.
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