Journal/Citation

Summary and Citation Journals for The Scarlet Letter


Requirements:

1. Write a 2-3 sentence summary for each chapter.
2. Write one vocabulary word you found in each chapter. Include the sentence in which you found the word (parenthetically referenced), the definition of the word, and what part of speech it is.
3. Copy exactly a 1-2 sentence citation for every two chapters. Choose something you think is significant. It may explicate character, introduce suspence, show symbolism or theme, foreshadow, or it may be an example of beautiful language or interesting syntax. You will have 12 citations when you have finished. Use correct punctuation and parenthetical referencing for each citation.
4. Write a response for each citation, explaining the context and why you chose it.
Basically, you need to offer a careful, close reading of the citation. Be specific, detailed, and thoughtful. Examine diction (word choice) and syntax (sentence structure) as well as content.
5. Type-written, please, 14 font, Times New Roman, double-spaced

SAMPLE JOURNAL: Chapters 1 and 2

Chapter 1 "The Prison Door"

Summary: This chapter describes the prison and its ugly surroundings. The only thing of beauty in the setting is a rose bush in full bloom. The author says he will pick for us one of its "sweet moral blossoms" to symbolize something good that may come out of a tale of sorrow.

Vocabulary Word: ediface

"Before this ugly ediface, and between it and the wheel track of the street, was a grass plot..." (1). Ediface is a noun, meaning, a building.

Chapter 2 "The Market Place"

Summary: The setting is established as Boston during the Puritan times. Hester Prynne comes out of the prison door carrying her baby, a child born out of wedlock. Because of her sin, Hester has been sentenced to wear a scarlet letter "A" embroidered on the front of her dress as a symbol of her adultery. For the most part, the townspeople are very critical of her and don’t think her punishment was severe enough—especially the women in the crowd.


Vocabulary Word: sumptuary
"...but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony" (7).

Sumptuary is an adjective, meaning regulating or limiting personal expenditures.


Citation from chapters 1 and 2:
"Finding [the rosebush] so directly on the threshold of our narrative, which is now about to issue from that inauspicious portal, we could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers, and present it to the reader. It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow" (2).


Response:
In this passage Hawthorne talks directly to the reader and points out that the rosebush, which was growing by the threshold of the prison is also on the "threshold of our narrative," i.e. at the beginning of the story. Just as the rosebush is a bright, sweet spot in the dismal surrounding of the prison, so there might be a bright "sweet moral" to be found in a dark and dismal story. He tells us we are going to read a tale of "human frailty and sorrow," and it is interesting that he says, "let us hope" {the rosebush] will symbolize a sweet moral blossom, as if he is joing the reader in trying to find something "sweet" in the "darkening" story he is about to share.