tesis- M. Aedo/ Scarlett Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

La siguiente es una tesis para el ramo de litratura Inglesa 2. Aqui se plantea los problemas de ignorancia, intolerancia , no empatía que existe en el mundo de hoy y se le compara con la época del libro La Letra Escarlata de Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Index

Introduction and thesis
1) Intolerance and ignorance
- Ours days problems related

2) Dread and ignorance in the American people
- Religious intolerance

3) Religion, the Scarlet Letter, the Puritan mind and ours days
- Sin in the Scarlet Letter
- Summary, the innocence of children, ignorance and intolerance

4) Empathy
5) Conclusion

¨ The world in which we live, religions problems, intolerance, empathy and a comparison with the times of the Scarlet Letter.¨
Introduction

¨¨The intolerance an evil that concerns the world and does not leave us to see the real beauty of the persons¨¨

Along the history we have been witnesses of many cases of destruction of soul of people. In history of men there are many episodes were we can find the abuse of men against others. One of the main points for all this is the power that some people or countries have. Another point that I will analyze in this essay will be the ignorance of men along his history and how this can be so dangerous to the development of the human race, and in the end of the paper I will give and answer to this problems that as many of us know the answer to the problems of humanity is the tolerance and the empathy.
I will give to you some episodes of what is happening now in the world with the problems of the globalization and wars, then I will continue with some examples of the repression of Catholic Church along the history and of course some definition of intolerant and empathy which are extremely necessary to build a world in peace were all the people can have their space and we all respect ours differences.
At the end I will compare these situations with the Scarlet Letter an American novel wrote by Nathaniel Hawthorne, in which topic we can find and excellent example of intolerance because the ignorance and the no empathy that is exist in the world in ours days.


Intolerance and ignorance

Looking in the dictionary for a good definition of ignorance I could find that this is the lack of knowledge or information about something. This is one of the main point or reason why the word has been an unhappy place along its history.
We don t have to look very far from our owns knowledge and see that in history of men there are several events that are relative to the destruction of human rights, wars, slavery, etc. All those things mentioned before are relative to the ignorance of people.
So the first question of this paper is almost ready, why does the intolerance exist in the word? Well a good answer to this is the ignorance of people in first way.
Mark Twain an American writer (1835-1910) said something about the intolerance that have a lot to do with the ignorance:
--- We despise all the reverences and all the objects of reverence that are out of our list of sacred things and nevertheless with strange inconsistency, fell stuck when other person despise and dirt the things that are sacred for us. ---
So this happens when we don’t know about other cultures or about other people’s customs.
In ours days we still can see problems that are relative to ignorance. If we look the last warlike conflicts for example the United States problems with the Afghanistan people, we can see that this is a problem of ignorance and intolerance. Now you are probably asking what this have to do with all this. In the next lines I will explain to you.
Now the world is linked by a global system of information where the United States is the head of whole business and Internet system. USA has been always in its history a country formed by wars and ethical problems like the slavery. It is well-known that this country in its first years grew thanks to the work of African slaves that were brought by the Dutch to America. This people have no rights and they had to work the land without a pay back and all this because the color of their skin. They were considered no as equals, and this is another important example of the intolerance and ignorance of men.
What happen in these days in relation to United States and the Afghanistan people is that USA is invading this people with all the technology, advertising and new ideas that are different and not well welcome for them because of their religion.
One example of this is the woman in Afghanistan, in their religion they have to wear a head scarf and they have to be pure and to be devoted to their husbands and family. Theirs reason of hers existence is that, and all that is far from that, like show their skin or dress with modern clothes is consider a sin for their religion.
The United States is in a race to consolidated the most powerful nation in the word, in a certain way they are but countries like Afghanistan are not interesting in to be part of this economical system that the United States is treating to form. United States and government are Ignorant of this people customs and they don’t care about they religion too.
In certain way the Afghanistan girls want to be like Americans because in the Net they can see, for example, people drinking Coke having a good time in parties, beautiful woman dressing nice clothes and all the things that we can find in the Internet. In some way they want to be like that and they want to live like that and becoming more like western people and all this of course is against theirs beliefs and religion.
Of course this is not the only point to analyze to understand the conflict, but it is a good point to understand how the ignorance and the intolerance are the causes of wars and death of innocent people and definitely all this make the world an awful place to be and live.

Dread and ignorance in the American people

Like I said before there many other conflicts that make this world an intolerance place to live.
Other example in the American culture is what it is happening with conflicts with Irak.
If we put as an example the scarlet letter one of the main point there is the dread that people in the society had. In this day something like that it is happening because of the fear that the entire world have.
Today almost 200 years after the time of the Scarlet letter the same country is protagonist of one of the biggest examples that the world will remember of intolerance. The current warlike conflict that faces United States with Irak is that the American dream is been threatened and they have to defend it. The life stile of the west is in danger and it is necessary to defend it. That is what the president says. The state need to defend it and this is the main argument used to request for support to go to war.
The director Michael Moore criticized and rewarded in the last years for his works as documentary maker says to us in his two more important jobs, the Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 911, that the most appellant topic to make react Americans used by Bush is the invitation to feel dread.


Religious intolerance

Many people think that the parable of Jesus Christ known as the Good Samaritan (Lucas 10:29-37) encloses the real spirit of Christianity: love to the fellow man in all cases not matter his or her religious, political or ideological ideas. God is the only who can judge people.
Unfortunately what Jesus wanted to teach us is been focused in the wrong way for many of the people who are in charge of Catholic Church. Here you have some examples of intolerance in speak of important members of Church:
- ¨It proposed once that all the Religious doctrines should be free and its ceremonies Executed publicly. We the Catholics have pushed this article back as contradict to the Catholic Roman conventual’s life law ¨ ( Pope Pio VII 1808 )
- ¨ The equal tolerance of all the religions is the same that the Atheism.¨ ( Pope Leon XIII , Imortale Dei )
- The freedom of press is one of the major evil that affects the modern society. (Cardinal, Pedro Segura New York Herald Tribune, 05/12/1952 )
- " It is illegal to demand, to defend or to grant unconditional freedom of thought or of word, or of press, or of worship, as if these were straight that the nature has given to the people " (Pope Lion XIII)

All these points mentioned before, say to us that the religion in its history has been treating to not give totally rights of expression or speech to the normal people. They have always treating to interfere in the minds and decision of act of people in generally.
The question here is, why if the religion is to serve the men is always saying that people is wrong and they have to be controlled, as if they were animals that do not have the aptitude to take good decisions in theirs life ?
This question is very simple to explain, the Church is composed by a lot of people around the world and of course the reason of its existence is praiseworthy, because the world need of charity in the first place and the men need to belief in something that is bigger and that created us. (Something that created us and that control the whole system). So the intention is not to destroy the church or say that they are all wrong, because like in every thing of the world are things that are wrong but of course there several points that are right. Anyway the problem is that this institution in manage by men. In this land, that belong to everybody we can find good and bad people. The real problem here is that the church was built for all, to save our spirit and to give us hope. Many Priests do an excellent work in theirs town and countries but the real problem is with the people who is in the top or in the head and take the
decisions about what the Church has to do.
If we remember or look into the history of Church we will find lots of mistakes In the collective opinion. For example why if Jesus tells us that we have to love every fellow and consider him or her us our brother Church had killed so many in the name of god?
That is a very good point to analyze and the reason is very simple. They always need to become more and more powerful. I said before the power of the church is based in the dread.
If we look the Inquisition, there e have good example of what I was saying. The Inquisition began in Spain, nobody is real sure when, but the important thing is Catholic Church started to chase a group of people called the Cátaros which were Catholic too but some of them ideas were a little different of what the Church said in those times. They were called heretics and they were persecuted to be eliminated in the name of God and the Catholic Church.
There are several events like this in the history but we don t need to see them all because are all almost the same. (People who are persecuted in the name of God). This going against of what we want or what we wish of the Church and of course against of the meaning of God, that is love and tolerance.
A few year ago I went to see a movie that was called Stigma, well I don t want to analyze the movie but the thing that the movie proposed was that was verse that it is not recognize by the Catholic Church. Supposedly it belongs to the Old Testament and was written by Saint Marco. This said that the God's empire and the majesty of heaven it is not in big places like temples or churches on the contrary you can find God in every place you go, If your you raise a stone you will find him.
I am not sure if this is right or wrong because this paper or letter does exist but of course the Catholic Church say that is not from the words of Jesus…..Well it is normally they say that because it is a way to protect them.




Religion, the Scarlet Letter, the Puritan mind and ours days

Continue with the analysis of my essay I would like to refer to the Scarlet Letter of the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is very important to enter in this topic because it is the central point of my essay and all that I am writing now it is because I will give my conclusion based in this book.
This book is about a girl who has been condemned to wear a letter in her clothes (breast). The letter A which represent Adultery, because she was pregnant and nobody knew who the father was.
To understand the reason of why she had to wear the Scarlet Letter I will make a brief analysis of the times she lived and the puritan mind.
Puritan based all their belief in the Catholic Church they thought that they have the right to create a New Jerusalem in the New England (United States). They were Intolerants to all the things that were going in opposition to the educations of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the family, the economic , the ecclesiastic and the political life, from the biggest matters up to the very earthly ones they all were seen like controlled for the Church educations.
So as we can see they based theirs life in order of what the sacred writings say.
The sixth commandment say not to commit adultery. This was the reason; we can understand why this lady was sentenced to wear the scarlet letter on her breast. It was and still is a sin for the Catholic Church, so in those times she had to pay with the shame of her sin and from that moment accepts that God will never excuse her for what she did.
In ours days a situation like this is totally subjective, it is depend of what you think about it. If you are Catholic maybe you will agree in the decision of these people, to condemn her.
Another point is that in ours days the religion is still saying that people are bad because of what they do, think or think.
Society in ours days still repel or drive back girls who are pregnant without been married. Or even worse priest condemn young people for have impure thoughts. Catholic Church still teaches us that we are bad and thanks to us Jesus died. When a baby born we have to baptize him or her because he/she has the original sin. All these are what religion teach us, and this is an excellent example of the intolerance that Church is still saying to us. I think we have to educate our children but not to resign them because something that is natural and we all have happened for it.

Sin in the Scarlet Letter

The analysis of the sin in this book will give us a much better example of what happened in those days and how that is still happening.
First, priest Dimmesdale committed adultery, but when the people in town asked Hester who were the father she became pregnant he remained quiet. She had to wear a scarlet letter A upon her breast which was nothing compared to avoid the looks of the people. They both were sinners and they have to deal with that in theirs hearts.
Something that I learned in this book is that always better to say the true, because there is nothing more painful that carry the fault in your heart. Thinking in the priest If he would have came out in the beginning and admitted his sin he would not have lived a life in pain.



The problem present her e and for en the analysis of the religion, the intolerance and the scarlet letter is that Church in this time and in ours times is saying what is morally right or wrong to do and I think this will happen for the rest of the days. But the important think is that they had made lots of mistakes and they will be making much more because the people who manage the Church is just that people and they can make many mistakes and only God will tell you if what you did was wrong or right.
This book shows the perception, the thoughts, and result of adultery, a largely immoral sin. This book also shows the inability for humans to see past that and understand who someone is and not just what they had done. If humans think that adultery is immoral how moral is it to think that these people should never be forgiven. Humans do not have the right to judge only the judgment of God really counts in the end.




Summary, the innocence of children, ignorance and intolerance

In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne does an admirable job of expressing the true nature of his characters. Nowhere in his story is this more obvious than in his portrayal of the children. Children, in their innocence will say or do anything, for unlike adults, they are not constrained by societal expectations.
Pearl, the leading child in the novel, is an excellent example of childish innocence combined with almost preternatural perception. Her willpower and imagination make her a blessing and a curse to her mother, who has paid such a dear price for her child. “After testing both smiles and frowns, and proving that neither mode of treatment possessed any calculable influence, Hester was ultimately compelled to stand aside, and permit that the child be swayed to her own impulses”.Pearl could not be controlled by anyone, nor did she easily establish relationships with others. The other children in town would often tease her and gang up on her, berating Pearl and her mother. Pearl’s anger, however, was released in fits of fury as she screamed and flung things at her opponents. These heathenish qualities and unintelligible screams made many of the townsfolk believe her to be a witch. In one of the final chapters, Mistress Hibbins, a confirmed witch, proclaims Pearl to be the daughter of the Prince of the Air, another term for Satan Pearl is never, in the entire book afraid to speak her mind. Her mother, embarrassed by many of these outbursts, tries in vain to shush her, but often to no avail. Pearl seems to realize early on in the book that Dimmsdale is her father, which accounts for her numerous pleas for him to “take her and her mother’s hand.”
.Also, Pearl has a strange attachment to the scarlet letter. As a baby, she would reach out and try to grab it on her mother’s breast .She seems to innately realize that it has great significance, but when she confronts Hester about it, her mother lies to her, telling Pearl that she wears it because of its beautiful gold thread. This scene shows an excellent example of innocent curiosity from Pearl, and Hester’s lying because of society. In the Puritan community, secrets are not revealed or shared with others. Dimmsdale, whose emotional burden saps his strength, cannot bring himself to take the weight off his shoulders by telling his secret to the community .It was simply not done. Once a secret was out, however, everyone in the community knew about it immediately .Hester cannot even bring herself to tell her own daughter the true reason for the scarlet letter upon her bosom. Children, although raised in the same society, knew nothing about these unspoken rules, and did not learn of them until they had gained maturity. The children in The Scarlet Letter also, have a kind of mischievous intelligence and cruel nature. The village children, who know the significance of the scarlet letter, but in many cases, do not fully understand it. They observe that the adults treat Hester with scorn, and also that she lives apart from the rest of the village. In attempts to imitate the adults, they sometimes harass her, or spy on her .They tease little Pearl, a less formidable looking opponent than her mother, but Pearl’s temper frightens the other children. Pearl’s mischief stands out from that of the other children, for Pearl is more often seen than the other children. Her temper is mercurial, and her anger is as formidable as that of any adult, sometimes more so.
It was a face, fiend-like, full of smiling malice, yet bearing semblance of features that she had known full well, though seldom with a smile, and never with malice, in them. It was as if an evil spirit possessed the child, and had just then peeped forth in mockery.In a juxtaposition of images, Pearl threw flowers, the symbol of love, at her mother’s scarlet letter, the symbol of shame and unspoken torture to Hester .Hester is dismayed at her daughter’s flighty displays of cruelty and wonders if her child is an elf, a demon, or an evil spirit. Although Hester loves Pearl very much, Pearl is a curse, the living personification of the scarlet letter, and just as much of a torture as the symbol upon her breast.It seems, perversely, that as much as Hester is afraid of Pearl’s imagination and temper, she seems to encourage it and permit it as well. She does not control her child, except to make vain attempts to silence her and allows her to play games of imagination that smack of witchcraft by the town’s standards. In some ways, Hester behaves like a child, without any respect for conventional rules; however, Hester knows the full implications of what she is doing. Although she does set herself apart from society, she does not have the innocence that allows her to do or say anything without a good excuse. The innocence of children is an unchanging part of humanity. Maturity and responsibility come with time, but so do the restraints that humans put on their actions, tongues, and hearts. Children, however, are very perceptive, and Hawthorne makes this very clear. Their eyes and ears are always open, yet no one notices a child. Pearl’s wisdom and innocence are infuriating and lovable aspects of her personality, and in many ways, she voices what Hester only thinks. Adults in The Scarlet Letter, especially Mr. Dimmsdale, keep their thoughts, feelings, and emotions to themselves, sometimes with disastrous results. In truth, only children can be trusted to tell the complete and utter truth, for they do not understand the tact of white lies, the manners with which we must conduct ourselves, or the politics of society.



Empathy

The encyclopedia Britannica defines it as "The ability to imagine oneself in anther's place and understand the other's feelings, desires, ideas, and actions. It is a term coined in the early 20th century, equivalent to the German Einfühlung and modeled on "sympathy." The term is used with special (but not exclusive) reference to aesthetic experience. The most obvious example, perhaps, is that of the actor or singer who genuinely feels the part he is performing. With other works of art, a spectator may, by a kind of introjections, feel himself involved in what he observes or contemplates. The use of empathy is an important part of the counseling technique developed by the American psychologist Carl Rogers." (1999 edition)

The big difference between the word "empathy" and its synonym "awareness" is that the sympathy is incorporated into the meaning of the word "empathy". You may be aware that your friend is feeling lonely, that your partner is getting a divorce that your classmate is struggling with the literature essay. You simply keep those facts in rough forms as they are. You are too busy to spend an afternoon with your lonely friend watching movies together or going to some place to talk. You have more important things to do than just to share a cup of coffee or a glass or beer and listen to your friends endless and nonsense troubles in engagement. Who can say you lack awareness? No, you are very well informed. However, if you don't share with others their feelings, don't put yourself into the other's shoes, don't even show them how much you care about their troubles, you lack empathy. The empathy is one step higher in term of emotional development compared to awareness. For example, if you are depressed about your bad results in study, you need your classmates to show their sympathy and encouragement to you. You need them to understand which reasons may lead to your bad grades. You need them to suggest other approaches in study that you may want to try. You probably don’t want to see others acting as if they don’t care; you need to see others empathize with your troubles.
Empathic people are those who express their feelings toward your problems with sympathy and understanding.
Empathy is required for winning the peace if not for winning the war. Understanding the feelings of human beings and the consequences of our actions seems like a minimal requirement for policy and planning but apparently it’s not. The capacity to get outside ourselves and feel what others feel does not mean surrendering our self interest in some naive belief that others are better than us because they’re not. But it does mean understanding who others are because then we remember who we are too.
Exactly this is what happened in the society of the Scarlet Letter, because of the ignorance and how Kant (Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804), German philosopher) said we need to use the Reason, because this is the only way to defeat the ignorance and the intolerance. Putting ourselves in the place of others (empathy) it is the only way to build a better world and respecting others is the only way to respect ourselves.



Conclusion

I have been given you some aspects of why the word is so intolerant. Power and religion are some of the main points to analyze in this matter. People who have the power to make the decisions in the world always try to put theirs ideas and interests
in front of the Common good. Wars are a good example to this and certainly the lack of empathy in almost every person is very important to bear in mind.
The analysis that I presented as many points to consider, if we see the story of the scarlet letter something like that happen to the protagonist.
Hester Prynne was a lady that suffered the intolerance of her time because the religious intolerant product of the ignorance and the lack of empathy of her time and her society. She has to live all her life with the shame of her sin. And nobody really care that she was an excellent person, because if we really see, who is totally innocent in the world we all have made bad things or things that we sorry?
She felt the shame, and she even believed that she was a toy of the demon, because of her religion education. All these points are referring to one thing and that thing is the intolerance of people that is result of the ignorance. Because of the religion people was agreeing with all the thing that the Church said and they were blind and didn’t see that in front of them was a good woman that cares about her daughter and other people who were sick.
The same happens today we are just concern for ours things and we don’t look to the people who need us; we turned the face when we don’t understand somebody who think or feel in a different way. If somebody has a different opinion about something that it is different from ours we don’t listen and separated or say bad things about that person. Empathy is what this world need, o treat for one minute to put in the other mind and try to understand why she or he feels that way.
All these are wrong the intolerance in first place that is a consequence of the ignorance and the lack of empathy.
I think that Hester was a good woman that had to live with the intolerance of her time and her society, but anyway she was good because she really care about the people, when she had the opportunity to help other she was there and she loved her daughter. And another thing about Hester is that she had the sufficient valor to keep the secret and not say to anybody who was the father of her daughter, she protected him. That is something that necessarily should make us think.
To end my essay I would like to say one more think. We need to make a review to ourselves and think about our intolerance and lack of empathy, because these are the causes of why in the world every body is fighting. And if we were less intolerance we will be able to have more friends, to learn about different cultures, life styles and we will be much richer as persons, and make the world a better place. At the end been tolerant we will find the beauty that was hide to us when we where intolerant.