Scarlett Letter Essay

Many of the characters in The Scarlet Letter change over the course of the novel. Some of them change for the good, while some change for the bad. Two of the main characters, Roger Chillingworth and Pearl, change during the novel. Roger Chillingworth changes for the worse, becoming evil and manipulative, while Pearl changes for the good, becoming pretty, and nice instead of evil. With Roger Chillingworth becoming evil and Pearl having been evil, them changing reflects one of the themes of the novel, sin.
In the beginning of the novel, Roger Chillingworth moves to the small town. Nobody really knows anything about him besides that he is a physician. However he is very kind and just curious as to what is going on with this young woman, Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne was his wife, who when they got separated, lost her. Nobody knows, in the beginning of the novel, that he was the husband of Hester, he keeps it a secret throughout the novel. Later in the novel he moves into a house with Arthur Dimmesdale, the one who his wife cheated with. Here is when we tell how much Chillingworth has change. “With what a ghastly rapture, as it were, too mighty to be expressed only by the eye and features, and therefore bursting itself even riotously manifest by the extravagant gestures with which he threw up his arms towards the ceiling, and stamped his foot upon the floor! Had a man seen old Roger Chillingworth, at that moment of his ecstasy, he would have had no need to ask how Satan comports himself when a precious human soul is lost to heaven and won into his kingdom.” This quote from the book shows how evil Chillingworth has become. He has the look and just what he is doing to Dimmesdale, watching him constantly controlling him, this is all so devil like. “Roger Chillingworth readily assented, and went on with his medical supervision of the minister, doing his best for him, in all good faith, but always quitting the patient’s apartment, at the close of the professional interview, with a mysterious and puzzled smile upon his lips. This expression was invisible in Mr. Dimmesdale’s presence, but grew strongly evident as the physician crossed the threshold.” Here it shows how manipulative Chillingworth is. He acts as if he is helping Mr. Dimmesdale with his “sickness” when really all Chillingworth is doing, is just trying to figure out if Mr. Dimmesdale is maybe the father of Pearl.
Chillingworth changes for bad throughout the novel, becoming evil and manipulative, however not all characters in the novel change for the bad. Pearl, another main character in the novel, changes from an “imp” to a beautiful and kind girl. She changes for the good, becoming a better and kinder little girl. In the first couple chapters of the novel, Pearl is often referred to as an elf child, or an imp. Her behavior of throwing rocks at the other children or the kind of evil look in her eyes just makes everyone referrer to her as an imp. “So smooth and quiet that it reflected a perfect image of her little figure, with all the brilliant picture squeness of her beauty, in its adornment of flowers and wreathed foliage, but more refined and spiritualized than the reality ; herself, meanwhile, all glorified with a ray of sunshine that was attracted thitherward as by a certain sympathy.” Here in a later chapter, we see Pearl as a beautiful young girl. The sunshine shinnying her just brings out even more how much beautiful she has become. Also while coming back from the woods all the animals loved her, this showing how kind she is now. Also at the very end of the novel Pearl, being so kind and nice now, kisses Dimmesdale for the first time. “Dear little Pearl, wilt thou kiss me now? Thou wouldst not, yonder, in the forest! But wilt? Pearl kissed his lips.” This just proves how much Pearl has changed, she would have never kissed Dimmesdale at the beginning of the novel, as she didn’t in the forest, but now that she is not “elf child” she kisses Dimmesdale. Pearl changes for the good over the novel, becoming a nicer and beautiful girl all around.
Throughout the novel both Chillingworth and Pearl change. Chillingworth changes for the bad, while Pearl changes for the good, both however become almost the complete opposite as in the beginning of the novel. People should learn that everyone changes, some for the good and some for the bad.

The Day I Got My Dog

As I lay in my bed early morning of August 13, 2003, I try to realize that today is the last day of summer, my last day of freedom, what should I do? I sat there depressed, but yet curious and excited about the day to come. Soon I began to smell something sweet, rich, and chocolaty! I go down stairs to see what’s going on and there my mom is cooking. As we eat some cinnamon rolls, I ask her what we are doing today; she tells me that we may go to the animal shelter. Never had I ever been to the animal shelter, what was it like?
Anxious and excited, all throughout the day, we were finally there! As soon as I opened the car door I could smell the shelter dogs, nasty and dirty. I could hear dogs scratching, moving and barking like crazy! What are they doing to the poor dogs? We walked in the door and I saw animals all around, tons of dogs and cats. We of course went to the dogs first. So many cages with dogs in them, but this one dog caught my eye, I ran straight to that cage. This dog was a boy, he had great big brown eyes, with a droopy face, and I knew he was the one. This one like no other dog, was asleep, I knew he was special. I immediately started to beg my mom, my sister right by my side begging too. My mom kept saying “No, no, no!” Begging like crazy, my sister soon begin to cry. With my sister crying, everyone in the animal shelter, even all the dogs, started to stare at us. My mom finally gave in and said yes! Being so excited, we jumped up and down with joy.
As we were on are way home in the car with him, he started to have this really weird cough. My mom said something must be wrong with him, so the next day we brought him to the vet. The vet said he had parvovirous and could possibly die! They said he would have chances of living if we brought him to the vet every week, and he had these special baths; of course, we did. About a couple of months later they said his parvovirous was gone! I couldn’t believe that he had survived and not died like most dogs that had parvovirous. I knew he was special as soon as I saw him, but never that special!
The day I got Goose was one of the best days of my life and I will never forget it! It was a great way to end the last day of summer!

Reflection

Reflection

Part 1:

My first piece was a story about the first day i got my dog, Goose. This story, i wrote it in a memoir. A memoir is like a memory from the past. You use very descriptive words in a memoir. Which was one of the things i learned while writing this. I also learned to used an active voice, that is making the subject of the sentence do the action of the sentence. In using active voice you must also try to eliminate being verbs, some examples of these are: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, and been. It was very difficult to not use these words, I even had to go back through my paper many times, because I kept using these words. Even though it was hard to not use these words in my paper, after correcting, I went back and read my paper, it sound a lot better and more well written.
The second piece I wrote was an essay about the Scarlett Letter. This piece was about how the characters in the book change. I wrote about Proctor and Pearl, and how they change. I explained how Proctor had changed for the worse, and how Pearl had changed for the good. I also explained how there changing character, went with the theme of the novel. Something I learned while writing this essay was about thesis statements and transitions. I learned to make good transitions from one thought to the next, and some good ways to do that. A thesis statement should be interest catching, once someone reads it, they should be into the paper, and want to read it. In reading the Scarlett Letter, I also learned out dark Romanticism. Dark romantics where people who viewed life as colorful, and they recognized the evil in man. Hawthorne, the author of the novel, did this also, when he recognized the evil in man; as with Chillingworth and Pearl. I have learned a lot from writing papers in this class, however some of the most helpful things i have learned is writing with an active voice, and with that eliminating being verbs. Also learning how to transition my thoughts, it has helped me transition my thoughts more clearly. Lastly i have learned about writing thesis statements, and with that it is making my essays more eye catching and interesting.



Part 2:

In both my pieces, the Scarlett letter essay, and memoir I had to revise. There were many new ways I revised. One of the major things i revised for was the commas. There were many occasions when i had to put commas where I didn't know before where they went. We went over in class one day about where commas should go and semicolons, that helped me understand where in my paper i should put a comma or perhaps a semicolon. Also in my memoir I revised on cutting down on my "being" verbs. There were a couple occasions i didn't even know i was using one, but i was. One example of when i revised was, I said in my memoir, "He was asleep like no other dog." I used a "being" verb there, was. I went back and changed the sentence to, "This one like no other dog, was asleep." I took out the "was", and rearranged the sentence. Eliminating the "being" verbs in my memoir made it sound a lot better. I also revised my Scarlett letter essay, I went a little off topic and wasn't concentrating on how the characters changing contributed to the theme of the novel. In realizing this i added to my paper this sentence, "With Roger Chillingworth becoming evil and Pearl having been evil, them changing reflects one of the themes of the novel, sin." This helped "tie in" how Chillingworth and Pearl's changing character reflected the theme of the novel, sin. Also in my Scarlett letter essay I don't make somethings really clearer, an example of this is when i am talking about Chillingworth, I don't really make it clear that Hester is Chillingworth's wife, so i added this sentence to help, "Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne was his wife, who when they got separated, lost her. Nobody knows, in the beginning of the novel, that he was the husband of Hester, he keeps it a secret throughout the novel." In revising my thoughts and making it more clearer, it helped my paper sound more well written and easier to understand.


Part 3:

From reading through of a couple of my classmates' portfolios i found a couple of things that are important to me. In reading Meredith's portfolio (http://meredith92.blogspot.com/). I learned how to refer back to the text better. In her nature essay she refers to the text so well, and the quote she uses conveys to what she is trying to say. That is very important because in almost every paper you write you should refer to something that you have read. I should try now, to pick a quote that refers a little more to what i am trying to convey, then i have before. I also read Amanda's portfolio (http://amandacmoore.blogspot.com/). I read her Scarlet Letter essay and in it I saw that she added the page number of the quote at the end. I never thought to do this, I wish I would have done it in my essay, but from now on i will remember to make sure to put the page number. Lastly I read Brooke's portfolio (http://brookeworks.blogspot.com/). In his essay I realized that using similes and metaphors, are easier to put in your paper than i thought. I tried to go back through my papers and put a couple.
Just from reading Meredith's, Amanda's, and Brooke's papers, I learned alot. Also incorporating these couple things that I learned to my paper, made my paper a lot better, and come to life.