After navigating through a semester full of characters, ranging from the freedom-yearning Jim, to the determined and vengeful Ahab, to the hypocritical and reputation-crazed Dimmesdale, we are left with a colorful assortment of characters that, as a group, comprise a living, breathing definition of the American identity. With this vast collection of fictitious characters, we gain an excellent overview of just how vastly diverse and complex the people of this country have always been and continue to be. In many ways it seems that an individual wanting to grasp a thorough and realistic picture of just what it means to live in American would greater benefit from reading this semester’s collection of canonical novels than they would from studying even the most acclaimed American history books. Though it would never be entirely possible to represent each and every individual in this country, throughout our readings the character that I feel best exemplifies my personal definition of what it means to be American is Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne.
The Scarlet Letter is, I feel, a highly overlooked and underappreciated book, due perhaps largely to the fact that most people have been made to read it multiple times by the time they reach college. However, when recollecting all of the characters presented to us during this semester, Hester stands out in my mind as a solid representation of the many aspects and struggles bound up in the term “American identity.” To her very core, she is relatable, extremely human, and most of all, very flawed. Her life is plain and average, and her personality is the very opposite of flashy, in many ways the most down to the earth character that we have come across during the semester. Though she cannot represent every struggle that Americans must deal with, her particular situation is not as important as the ways in which she chooses to handle it. Hester Prynne is merely a vessel for any American situation; any struggle or hardship could be substituted in for her sin of adultery and we would relate with her in just the same way.
Perhaps a contributing factor in the overall negative opinions that many people feel towards the novel, Hester is never exceedingly happy or successful. She lives under the constant scrutiny of a judgmental community, and she does not, for the vast majority of her adult life, ever feel truly at ease with her place in society. As a country that prides itself on individuality, this feeling of isolation and the prideful determination to maintain self-sufficiency is a common feeling that seems to affect most all of us at one point. We all struggle with the balance of fitting in while also maintaining the social distance necessary for the independence that we value as a society. Through Hester’s lens we also witness the hypocrisy of a country whose sole original impetus was to obtain freedom and escape persecution-goals which sound nice on paper but, as we have seen time and time again, do not always entirely come to fruition. Hester shows us just how judgmental American can actually be, just how harsh our punishments often are, and also the flawed system of justice that allowed for others who engaged in equally sinful acts to escape persecution.
Though as a white citizen living in New England, Hester is not subject to the struggles of an African American or the racist views of southerners, and though she does not experience the physical isolation that plagues the crew of the Pequod or the lighthouse inhabitants in the Ahab’s Wife, I would argue that the constraints and judgments placed on Hester define her just as entirely as they do for any other character. Though her struggles are not as outwardly obvious or horrific in nature as Jim’s in Huck Finn or My Jim, the personal strife that she goes through is constant and unrelenting.
In a country where self-reliance is encouraged, and an “every man for himself” attitude is encouraged, Hester embodies this in the most positive sense. She perfectly embodies the spirit of determination and will power, and unlike the crew of the Pequod who let this drive consume them, Hester is able to make good use of it. Hawthorne exhausts his readers with Hester’s constant, daily grind – her life is never easy, her guilt never subsides, yet she remains focused on her simple but admirable goals of raising her daughter and building a place for herself in Salem. Though we like to read of dramatic, attention grabbing characters who act in rash, romantic ways, Hester shows us the much more realistic, daily struggles of learning to live with her flaws. To me, the fact that Hester is finally able to come to terms with herself, find herself a role in society, and ultimately learn to lead a positive life despite her flaws is the true picture of what the American dream really is. It is the fact that Hester leads such an average, and in many ways far from perfect life that makes her so relatable, and the fact that she is able to find the personal strength to overcome all of the societal restrictions that makes her the ideal embodiment of the American experience.
Canonical Thoughts 