Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (ch. 1-4)

     One thing pointed out in these first chapters of The Scarlet Letter is how easy it is for us to judge other people, to point out the speck in others' eye while neglecting the plank in our own.  Although I see the merit in confession and in bringing sin to light and dealing with it appropriately, I think the way the townspeople dealt with Hester Prynne was not an appropriate way to deal with sin.  Confession is supposed to bring sin to light but also restore people back into the community of faith, a community that is gracious and forgiving because they too have sinned and understand.  But putting Hester up on a pedestal with the scarlet 'A' as a way of punishing sin did nothing to help the greater community recognize their own sin, nor did it restore Hester back into the community.  The community gave her no grace, but rather further alienated her from themselves.  It is quite possible that many other in the community had committed adultery, but are not being punished because they got lucky and didn't bear the consequences of their sin through a child, as Hester did.  Although the community of people probably didn't think so, I thought they could have learned from Hester, who was unwilling to point out the speck in someone else's eye--specifically, the father's child--but instead was only concerned with dealing with the plank in her own eye.