The Scarlet Letter Summary and Citation Journals

The Scarlet Letter – SUMMARY and CITATION JOURNALS

 

 

Requirements:

1.      Write a 2-3 sentence summary of each chapter.

2.  Write one vocabulary word you found in each chapter.  Include the sentence in which you found                        the word (parenthetically referenced), the word’s definition, and what part of speech it is.

3.  Copy exactly a 1-2 sentence citation for every 4 chapters.  Choose something you think is                               significant.  It may explicate character, introduce suspense, show symbolism or theme,                                foreshadow, be an example of beautiful language or interesting syntax, etc.                                                  *  You will have four citations when you have finished.                                                                                 *   Use correct punctuation and parenthetical referencing for each citation.

            4.  Write a response to each citation, explaining the context, why you chose it, and essentially                                  offering a careful, close reading of the citation.  Be specific, detailed, and thoughtful.

            5.  Type-written or handwritten very neatly in ink.

 

 

SAMPLE JOURNAL – Chapters 1 and 2

 

Chapter 1 “The Prison Door.”  This chapter describes the prison and its ugly surroundings.  The only thing of beauty in the setting is a rose bush.  The author says he will pick one of its “sweet moral blossoms” to symbolize something good that may come out of a tale of sorrow.

 

Vocabulary word:  edifice                                                                                                                               “Before the ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel track of the street, was a grass plot”               (Hawthorne 46).

            Edifice (noun) – a large building.

 

Chapter 2 – “The Market Place.”  The setting is established, Boston during 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 “adultery.”  For the most part the townspeople are very critical of her and don’t think her punishment was severe enough.

 

Vocabulary word:  venerable                                                                                                                           “…the severest acts of public discipline were alike made venerable and awful” (Hawthorne 48).

            Venerable (adjective) – highly respected.  The word is often associated with religion or used to                                describe a highly regarded, elderly person.  Young people aren’t venerable -- yet J

 

Citation:

“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” (Hawthorne 46).

 

Response:

In this passage Hawthorne talked 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 joining the reader in trying to find something “sweet” in the “darkening” story he is about to share.