The Scarlet Letter

First of all: this was a really hard book to read. You can definitely tell that it was written in the 1850s (I think). The age rating I gave was for difficulty. If you’re looking for content appropriateness, I’d say 12+. The plot is about adultery, but it’s nothing a mature middle schooler couldn’t handle. Overall it was a likeable book, but I’d recommend reading a summary of each chapter before you get into them.

I had to read this for school and idk if it is just me being stupid but this is the most boring, unintelligible pile of old English there is out there. I mean the author is well known and I guess it had some good messages or whatever but seriously it took him like 10 chapters to move the main character from the town to the Forrest. Also I had to suffer through all that with added discussions in class for one of the worst endings I’ve ever read. STOP READING NOW FOR SPOILERS. I mean he just dies???!!! What’s up with that. Anyway in all, it was fine I guess.

The strength and resolve portrayed in this book by Hester Prynne are inspiring and interesting. However, I found this book very complicated to read and the descriptions and old expressions were confusing and at times boring. This novel does talk about adultery, sin and God, but there's nothing graphic and the values transmitted are stronger than the former themes.

The Scarlet Letter, like most Hawthorne works, is a piece on original sin. It's chock full of symbolism, big words, and puritans. So if that sounds fun, great! If not, that's cool. Personally, I found the book to be very smart and full of sad truths about sin and hypocrisy, but not something I would read for enjoyment (Sadly). There is little (if any) questionable content apart from the premise, and I would mainly recommend this for older teens due to it's difficulty rather than it's content.

I read this book probably in third or fourth grade(I am in 8th grade right now) so my memory it's fussy and back then I am pretty naive. And I read it in Chinese, so here it's what I think: I remember it being very religious, a lot about sin and god. Which at the time I am very confused (imagine a 9 years old child in Beijing who knows nothing about religious or history) . So I suppose it would have been a better reading experience if I am a bit older. But I was also a mature kid, which helped a little bit. I have a good memory when it's comes to book, so I still pretty much remember the main plot. And I actually got better understanding of it after studying American history.

I loved this book, especially the style of writing. It is a great piece of historical fiction and classic literature. The biggest concerns would be the idea of adultery itself, mentions of witchcraft, and the somewhat cruel punishment of the Puritans. It shows the power of guilt, and one scene mentions hallucinations. This is a wonderful book to read, and it is also good for school papers.

I loved this book. It showed how prominent the church was in the early settlements like the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The strength that is shown from Hester Prynne is very inspirational. The only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the over abundance of description.