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A Hero's Journey In The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne

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In 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. Hester’s journey was a more personal journey, rather than the action packed journey of Odysseus, but both of these characters demonstrate strong heroic traits. They both survive through their hero’s journey valiantly. To begin Hester’s …show more content…

If the colonists weren’t insulting or offending her, they were avoiding her. She had to survive and persevere through these challenges primarily mentally and alone, but she made it through. Odysseus had challenges of his own on his journey. While, again, his challenges tested him more physically than Hester’s, they both still had to be courageous enough to survive through this leg of their journey. Hester was ridiculed, and Odysseus was forced to risk his life on many occasions. They both were challenged, and they both …show more content…

Hester and Pearl took this as an advantage and fled their Boston Colony to live in England. This was Hester’s transformation stage. She left her former life, finished her journey, and started a new life in England with her daughter. Odysseus’ transformation was finally making it back to Ithaca and being reunited with his wife and son. He left his former life, finished his journey, and started a new life again in Ithaca. Both of these heroes completed their journey and made it to the stage where they could finally be satisfied. There were no more challenges, only the satisfaction of reaching their

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