Hawthorne’s classic, The Scarlet Letter, thoroughly goes through the themes of sin, punishment, redemption, and truth. The novel takes place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1642 through 1649. It discusses the story of Hester Prynn, a young woman who conceives a baby through adultery and, as punishment, is forced to wear a large, embroidered scarlet “A” on all of her clothing. However, she will not admit who the baby’s father is, nor will the father come forward.

Mr. U’s AP Language and Composition class is currently reading this classic, Puritan tale. Despite the rhetorical analysis essay they have to do for class, students reviewed the book based on how much they enjoyed reading it.

“The book had a lot of symbolism. The deeper meaning really made it a good book!”
★★★★☆ – Matthew Foley

“It’s a very interesting and intriguing book! The biggest problem is that it definitely sounds like it was written in the 1800s.”
★★★★☆ – Taylor Hoefer

“I liked Hester (main character) the best. It was a good book, but too many unrealistic things happened for that time period.”
★★★★☆ – Taylor Block

“Overall the book was okay, I found it a little slow-moving.”
★★★☆☆ – Frederick Lang

“Minus one point because I did not read a page of the book and I feel like it would have been better if I did!”
★★★★☆ – Anonymous

“It was fun finding out who Hester Prynn’s baby daddy was!”
★★☆☆☆ – Claire Abdo

“Didn’t read so I wouldn’t know, but Hester Prynne seems like a girl boss.”
★★★★★ – Anonymous