Letters About Literature

Jackson Bates
1301 E Walnut St.
Carbondale, Illinois 62902
Dear Nathaniel Hawthorne,

            I am very disappointed with your so called famous novel, The Scarlet Letter.  It honestly just rambles on and on forever describing one aspect or characteristic of something that really isn’t even that important.  Also, it was insanely boring.  There was no action whatsoever and the main storyline was too simple.  Yes, adultery was committed, what is the need to remind this to the reader on every page?  Finally, who wants to read about the Puritan times anyway?  They were just a bunch of extremely religious people that thought being perfect was everything.

            I learned that you were paid for every word while writing The Scarlet Letter.  That sounds like a pretty nice deal; however, being extremely redundant makes a book horrible.  For example, there were spots in the book where you explained Hester Prynne using a whole chapter.  I could see someone using about two to three good quality paragraphs explaining the main character, but why a whole chapter?  The reader gets too caught up with that character after that anyway.  Then, for the next couple chapters, you forget the conflict of the story and it is hard to remember with all of the pointless descriptions.  In my situation, it made me want to just throw the book at a wall, which I did, because of its redundancy.

            Another reason I didn’t like your book, Nathaniel, is because there was no action at all.  It was simply a book with one crime that occurred before the book even started.  There were no intense parts that left me wanting to read more.  How come nobody has made a movie worth watching over The Scarlet Letter?   There was no enthusiasm in the book that also made it boring.  I pictured all of the characters just talking in a steady monotone the whole time.  There really was no emotion and none of the dialogue was interesting either.  I like books that have numerous conflicts throughout the story and the only one in this was the crime of adultery that was committed.

            The final reason why I didn’t like your All American Classic book, The Scarlet Letter is because it takes place in the Puritan times.  The main reason why I don’t like the Puritan times is because I did very badly on one of my essays over Puritan life.  The whole Puritan unit was pretty boring to me and reading this just enhanced that feeling.  The Puritans are not a good topic at all.  They just try to be perfect in the eyes of God, even if that means informing the ministers that one of their family members did something illegal.  In The Scarlet Letter, you made Dimmesdale die after he confessed his sins, which really didn’t make much sense to me.

            Thank you for your time of reading this letter, even though you’re dead.  I hope that you never write another Puritan book because you didn’t do very well with this one.  Also, I would recommend that being less selfish and writing a more quality book, rather than trying to make a bunch of money will help you out in the future.

Sincerely,

Hater of The Scarlet Letter