Hawthorne and Walker - Jessica Ruby

While The Color Purple by Alice Walker and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne tell two very different stories during different times and places of two different women, there are many resemblances that can be found in both style and actual content. With the purpose of telling the story of two women struggling to survive through hardships they both continue to face in their lives, both authors use a strategy of pathos to create an emotional connection, focusing on faith in God to help through hardship, and diversified diction to create and explain personalities of characters.   

A reader’s connection to characters can make or break a novel’s impact on its readers. In both The Color Purple and The Scarlet Letter letter the authors’ employment of ethos has a monumental effect on the intended message. With the likeness of the two main characters, being mistreated and oppressed women, there is also a strong connection between the plots of  these two novels. The difference between the characterization of Celie and Hester, though, is that Celie remains afraid of the conditions she lives in, while Hester embraces her situation and remains relatively optimistic not allowing her unfortunate situation to get the best of her life. Celie explains her fears to God:  “He beat me today cause he said I winked at a boy in church. I may have got somethin in my eye but I didn’t wink. I don’t even look at mens.That’s the truth. I look at women, tho, cause I’m not scared of them” (Walker, pg 5). Celie goes on to explain that even though her mother used to yell and cuss at her, she forgives her and is no longer afraid of her. This theme of forgiveness and rising above is strong throughout both novels and allows readers to connect with the stories and emotions of both main characters.

Another strong resemblance lies within the focus on having faith in God to guide his children through hardship and to forgive them for their sins. Both Celie and Hester rely on their faith in God to help them push through their mistreatment and forgive those around them for their ignorance to their own sin. This is not just a piece to the story but a main focus and aid in the well being of both main characters. Walker displays this is overall structure, with every page being a passage of Celie’s confidence in God, her only outlet. Hawthorne, though, uses eloquent diction in his arguably dramatic analyzation of events and their relevance to God and his plans and expectations of his children. The puritan community in which Hawthorne’s novel takes place explains the reasoning for such strong faith and punishment. "In our nature, however, there is a provision, alike marvellous and merciful, that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that rankles after it” (Hawthorne, pg. 28). This quote sheds light on how the punishment for sin can only be known after the act has been committed, and why Hester continues to pay for her actions. However, it is also in God that she finds peace and accepts her fate of being shunned and mistreated while not letting it command her life.

Lastly, language is a powerful tool that defines people by the way they use and interpret it. Everyone has their own style and voice that makes them who they are. By listening to the way a person bends and modifies English for their own use can tell a lot about their personality and background. Hawthorne and Miller use varied diction to express the likeness or difference between characters. While the form of English used between these two novels is quite different, their effect on the mind of the reader is the same. This attention to detail in terms of the voice of characters is very important when attempting to convey strong personality differences to a reader, especially because it can be difficult to understand the tone of a person’s voice when it is being read rather than heard, without great detail. For example, Celie’s innocence and ruggedness is conveyed through her subpar grammar and and writing skills, while still showing sadness and disdain towards her lifestyle and those that condemned her to it. It also shows her lack of understanding of her punishment by God and things that she cannot explain but to him. Her first letter to God best exemplifies this innocence and misunderstanding when she says “Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me” (Walker, pg. 1). This passage set the tone for the whole book. In contrast, Hester’s more eloquent diction and understanding of her punishment and its unreasonableness characterizes her as a strong intelligent women with a better understanding than those around her of God and his intentions. It can be inferred by just her voice and expertly conveyed attitude that she is aware of her sentence as a scapegoat in her community. However, it is also understood that she does not hold onto regret and pettiness, accepting her new way of life with her loved child. She takes on the role of an excuse the other puritans use to overshadow their own lives of sin with her pride still intact. Both Celie and Hester display strong personalities shown through the different voices Hawthorne and Walker have chosen for them.