Thursday, January 9, 2014

American Literature: The Scarlet Letter

Question:  Is The Scarlet Letter a valuable teaching tool that should continue to be taught in American Lit classes in high school?  Why/why not?


2 comments:

  1. Yes, I believe The Scarlet Letter is a valuable teaching tool that should be taught in American Literature classes during high school. The book portrays a certain dark and depressing mood with very little humor or relief. This can be used as an argument to say how the book shouldn't be taught in schools, but I believe that The Scarlet Letter shows certain aspects of real life that people should be exposed to. This is the basis of my opinion. I do believe that the language used can be a bit overwhelming and confusing at times but behind it all, there is a decent story with some good lessons to be learned. As a classroom tool, if everyone is somewhat understanding the book on their own, the teacher should be able to fill the holes in the story with information the student missed.

    There are many are a few central ideas in the story that can be discussed and analyzed deeply. There is a theme of sin throughout the whole book and how society is so bent on punishment of these sins. This society has a lot to be said about it. Society is what a lot of English classes end up talking about so this book definitely fits the bill as well. The society portrayed in the story consists of a bunch of crazed religious nuts who will execute or publicly humiliate in this case, based on peoples' sins. That is a good discussion for an ELA class in my opinion. There is a lot to dive into and dig deeper in the story so I would definitely say if the class is old enough to deal with the tough language, then go for it. The Scarlet Letter is a worthwhile read even if you have to read some and Sparknote some to further your understanding.

    In conclusion, I would say that The Scarlet Letter is a worthwhile read and a good teaching tool for any English class that is up for the challenge of reading and analyzing the text. There is much to be learned from it and could definitely be a good subject for a big in-class discussion.

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