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| Scarlett Letter |
For class we have recently read the novel Holder of the World, by the author
Bharati Mukherjee. Since the moment I opened up the book and began to read I was
intrigued at the novel and how much similarity that the book had to Scarlett letter, the last book that we
read. However even though both had many similarities, some of the examples that
the book illustrates goes hand in hand with many of the numerous theorists that
we have analyzed this semester; it was very interesting to see how Bharati’s novel
was merely a re-write of the Scarlett
letter. Although there are obvious examples of a correlation between two
books such as a character named Hester and another with the name Prynne, the
use of Salem as well as the puritan society, the fact that this novel seemed to
challenge Scarlett letter is what
really got me interested in reading more.
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| Nathaniel Hawthorne |
For example, the line on page 284 which states “Who can
blame Nathaniel Hawthorne for shying away from the real story of the brave
Salem mother and her illegitimate daughter”? As I read deeper into the text and
began to see how the novel transform into its own interpretation of Scarlett letter it really opened my eyes
to the idea of representation, space, symbol, as well as the fact that over
time a stories interpretation or meaning can be altered as well as the idea
that other outlooks on something can be discovered. For example, Holder of The World portrays use of time and space by representing
the 18th century to the 1980’s of Salem, Massachusetts to England as
well as India all in one novel. By doing so this allows for it to be looked
upon as being rebellious to the style of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book. In regards to representation, in the novel by
Bharati, the use of symbol and representation were used similarly to Hawthorne’s,
letter A, however instead of the letter representing Adulterer the novel
instead created “Indian Lover” as a representation for what Bharati’s newer
interpretation was.
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| Bharati Mukherjee |
With this in mind I really started to question how I would
change Scarlett Letter in a way that
would be interesting as well as incorporate the use of representation, space,
symbolism, as well as modern examples in today’s society and numerous thoughts
came to mind. I could for example create a situation where there is a single
father and the tables are turned from the typical stereotype of a single
mother, or maybe even have a black man “knock up” an upper-class white woman
during the extreme prejudice times of the Jim Crow era.
Though these seem to be
bizarre and very extreme in regards to Hawthorne’s Scarlett Letter, there is a great deal of ways in which these ideas
of representation, space, symbol, as well as going against the norm are
illustrated. With this in mind and after reading the novel The Holder of The World it is clear to see how various interpretations
can come to light with a change in time as well as perspective. Though both
this book as well as Scarlett Letter are
great works of literature and history, the fact that both are so different yet
also so similar at the same times really is captivating and shows how present the
theories that we have talked about over the course of the semester are really
present in this novel.
