The Scarlet Letter
The Custom House


Hawthorne opens his story of the Scarlet Letter with a description of the Custom House,
where he worked for three years. His fellow workers are considered older men who don’t work very hard and depend on the government service as payment of favors or work done previous years when they were young. Hawthorne uses the Custom House as a source for his story. His story the Scarlet Letter is his criticism of Puritanical Code of Law. He wants the reader to believe that the Puritans were evil by trying to make the reader believe that the story is true and really happened, although it didn’t. Hawthorne is showing how hypocritical the Puritans were and how they thought they had to Judge everyone and strongly believed it was there duty to seek out the sinners and punish them. Hawthorne’s description of Puritan ancestry, his knowledge of early history of New England and his outlook about people and politics, give the reader insight about his personal views towards Puritanism.

Brianna Walker
Literary Response
Ms. Brown
AP English

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

In the story Incidents in the Life a slave Girl, a young girl, Linda, recalls her experiences as a slave. She recaps on many different incidents but mainly focuses on the unfortunate ones. Throughout the story she highlights and emphasizes on her close relationship with her grandmother. She admires respects, idolizes, and honors her grandmother. Linda speaks very highly of her grandmother and mistress and looks to them as a mother figure as a result of losing her mother at age six. In the story Linda mentions that throughout her hardships and challenges, her grandmother’s love for her is what helped her to overcome them and keep moving forward. Linda’s mistress was spiritual and believed in God. The mistress taught Linda right from wrong and educated her to the best of her ability. Overall, Linda enjoyed living with her mistress and took it hard when she passed away. In addition to the mistress, Linda also lost her friend and father shortly after. Linda became depressed and very unhappy. At one point she even blamed god for these series of unfortunate events. Her grandmother did the best she could to comfort her and help her to understand that everything happens for a reason. As Linda grew and matured she learned to be optimistic and focus on the bright side of things. Unlike her brother William who was set in his ways and chose to focus on the negative and not so pleasant things that life had to offer. Linda was a risk taker and her grandmother supported her in everything she did. Linda’s grandmother eventually became a free woman but Linda and her brother remained slaves and was under the care of the mean, selfish, and coldhearted Dr. Flint and his wife. Being a slave, Linda was exposed to several brutal and unpleasant situations and circumstances but in every single one she tried her best to remain calm and keep her cool. Linda disliked Dr. Flint and rebelled against his ignorance and repeated attempts to change her morals and values. As Linda grew older, she began to realize what it truly meant to have the life of a slave girl and became miserable, hopeless, and discouraged. Whenever Linda needed someone to talk to she could always turn to her grandmother and count on her to lift her spirits and make her feel safe again. Linda endured much suffering during slavery and came to the conclusion that slave girls didn’t get to enjoy the beauties of life. In the end, Linda regains her faith in God and truly believes in him.

The snow covered tree branches in the winter are like whited seaguls.