Dad took up gardening (at one point, I swear an entire acre of our two acre lot was a garden), and every fall we harvested corn, peas, green beans, green peppers, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, onions, radishes, potatoes, broccoli, brussel sprouts, pumpkins, squash, beets, and even asparagus. Upon arrival to Maine, my parents found the most secluded house they could and began cultivating a haven to raise my brothers and me. Looking at him now, one would never guess he was once a beach bum surfing on the waves of the West Coast. After college and a short Army career, my father met my mother, a Maine native, and they moved up here, an event Dad describes as the best decision he has ever made. Growing up in Southern California, he realized at an early age that the concrete and billboards were not the right atmosphere for him. For as long as I can remember, my father has been a huge proponent of nature and living life simply. I recently had a conversation with my father about the importance of simplifying life. Although I do not agree with everything that Thoreau stands for, it has become evident to me that I respect and value his transcendental principles more than I realized. Somehow, in ways almost imperceptible to me, Thoreau has crept into my conversations and thoughts. Over the past couple weeks, I have experienced this phenomenon with Walden. Or perhaps, that is not a feature of an English Major, but of a good book. Only an English Major can read a book and find that every circumstance she comes across in life somehow relates to what she has read. Whatever the reasoning may have been for the inclusion of Hawthorne in the curriculum, I am fortunate to have had the experience o his writings both in my high school and college careers. On the other hand, perhaps the school realized the value in educating students on both sides of the issue. It seems to me that a school grounded in Christianity would avoid the texts that call to question the authority of the religion. Hawthorne, in fact, sends the message that those in religious prominence within the church should not be trusted, a common theme in both The Scarlet Letter and "Young Goodman Brown." So, I find it ironic and humorous that Hawthorne was on a Christian school's required reading list, although I am grateful that I was exposed to his writing before college. Interesting, then, to find the American Literature class at that very school reading a book which blatantly questions the authority of those in religious positions. Yes, the pastor, elders, and deacons were to be regarded as pious and holy. As students at the school and devout followers of Christ, we were to strive to live blameless before God, and always respect the ones in authority in the church. We were taught the elements of Christian living: abstain from all things of the flesh which meant secular music, movies and television rated PG-13 or above, alcohol, sex, swearing, secular books, revealing clothing, etc. If you did not go to church, you were not looked up on favorably. Students were required to attend Chapel three times a week and take four years of Bible class. I went to a Christian school that adhered to fundamental Baptist traditions. These two stories parallel in many ways, especially in the theme of religion being a area of life where mistrust and deceit abounds.Īs I was considering this parallel, I realized the irony of the fact that I had been required to read The Scarlet Letter in school. In "Young Goodman Brown," it is the elders, the teachers, the religious leaders of the community who are the ones involved in devil worship. Just as in "Young Goodman Brown," it was the preacher, the man of God, the one who was supposed to be above reproach, who committed the sin of fornication. As everyone who has read The Scarlet Letter knows, it was the town preacher who impregnated Hester, a fact which astonishes the Puritan community. In class we read The Scarlet Letter, the story of Hester Prynne and her exclusion from society for having a child out of wedlock. We read a great deal of Thoreau, Emerson, and Cooper, but the author that most stood out to me was Hawthorne. My sophomore year, I took an class on American Literature which explored many renowned authors in American history, with special emphasis on the Transcendentalist authors. I remember reading Nathaniel Hawthorne in high school.
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