Id#03141980 Essay, Research Paper

Why do modern advertisements for jeans rarely contain any jeans at all? It is because we live in a society where sex is for sale, and it sells. However, people’s minds were not always distorted into thinking of sex as a marketing tool and a common topic of discussion. Back in the 1600’s, there lived a pregnant young Puritan woman named Hester Prynne, who committed adultery. Hester, a character in the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was sentenced to wear the letter A as a reminder to everyone, including herself, of her sin. Hester and her child, Pearl, were made an example of and were ostracized from society. Therefore, societal differences negate The Scarlet Letter from having relevance to today’s teenage parents. Unlike today’s teen parents, a Puritan teenager with a “demon-offspring” is alone; she does not have anyone to share the blame or the situation [sl24.html#g07]. “You would surely have heard of Mistress Hester Prynne, and her evil doings, she hath raised a great scandal” [sl03.html#g06]. In the Puritan society, an act of adultery was “the deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life” [sl02.html#g19]. Hester was unable to reveal the father because of the degree of their sin. She did not want him to lose his place or respect as the minister of the town, and consequently she endured the blame alone. Today’s teenage parents, although sometimes looked down upon, are not outcast from society, and they will never suffer the strict punishment of a Puritan community. There was not another woman in the town that had ever experienced what Hester was going through. She was alone. Hester’s sin was such a rare occurrence that “a crowd of eager and curious school boys, understanding little of the situation at hand, except that it gave them a half holiday” witnessed her public humiliation [sl02.html#g17]. The lonely scaffold on which Hester stood in the town square reflected that she was “standing alone in the world, alone, as to any dependence on society, and with little Pearl to be guided and protected, alone” [sl13.html#g07]. Thus, contrary to today’s teenage parents, Hester did not have the support of those close to her or the community around her. Today, many teen parents receive help from their families and the father of the child, but Hester did not have either. Hester did not even receive sympathy or support from the women of the town because they thought “this woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die” [sl02.html#g07]. It would be impossible to gather a support group if the women of the town said that “at the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead” [sl02.html#g05]. Hester did not seek help from the community because she was fully aware of their feelings towards her. These days, the government helps out teen parents by providing halfway houses and funds to support a teenager and her child. Hester was not granted any of these things; she had to earn the “daily bread for little Pearl and herself by the faithful labor of her hands” [sl13.html#g03]. A society based entirely on the church would not support a girl in Hester’s position, but the separation of church and state in our society allows for a supportive community regardless of its members’ sins.

Today’s open society has been created in part by the media that has avidly accepted sex; without the media and a separation of church and state, a Puritan society has no room for that forbidden three letter word. If Hester were living in the 1990’s, she would no longer be “the outcast of society,” but a part of a great group of mothers [sl13.html#g03]. In today’s society, the media has made sex an open issue. Sex is everywhere, from the gay rights marches on the evening news to the graffiti in the public restrooms; however, it is never paired with that other three letter word, sin. The present open society was also created in part by the separation of church and state. “They haven’t been bold to enforce the extremity of our righteous law against her. The penalty is death” [sl13.html#g12]. The church decided Hester’s penalty and made sure that “she will be a living sermon against sin” [sl13.html#g13]. The church is no longer a part of the legal system. Therefore, the punishment that had been inflicted on Hester Pryne would never be carried out on a teenager of the 1990’s in an identical situation. Hester Prynne lived during another time period where there were different fixed guidelines that no longer apply to today’s societal standards due to our views on sex, religion, and punishment. Hester’s community would surely believe the present American society was condemned to hell if they knew of our comparative loose morals. If, by some turn of events, a Puritan group ever saw a commercial for Calvin Klein jeans, they would cover their children’s eyes, and shut their own because, by Puritan standards, those who would sneak a peek at such a display might as well have sold their sould to the devil himself.

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