The Scarlet Letter By: Maxwell Smith Comparing the songs to the novel

Linkin Park with "What I've Done" Track 1-Theme Linkin Park with "What I've Done" “What I’ve done. I’ll face myself, to cross out what I’ve become. Erase myself, And let go of what I’ve done. So let mercy come, And wash away…” “Put to rest, What you thought of me, While I clean this slate, With the hands of uncertainty…” -Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are isolated by their punishments. One of the themes is that they are united in sin. Although they are punished in different ways, they often reflect on what they’ve done. -Hester wears the letter “A” publicly to “cross out what” she’s “become” and to “Erase [herself].” She does this publicly and is criticized often. -Dimmesdale suffers in private. When he loses his glove at the scaffold, a man returns it to him and says “A pure hand needs no hand to cover it! (p 163).” In fact, Dimmesdale does need the glove because he committed adultery with “hands of uncertainty.” -The moral theme of the novel is to “Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world if you’re worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred.” Dimmesdale does not do this and eventually suffers an early death. Only on his deathbed does he “clean this slate.” [Single]

Track 2-Characterization The Alan Parson's Project with "Damned If I Do" “I ain’t got a heart of stone. I’m hurtin more now than I’ve ever known. If you mean the things you said, I’m gonna wind up out of my head. Can’t sleep alone at night. I just can’t seen to get it right. Damned if I do, damned if I don’t but I love you…” -This song reflects Reverend Dimmesdale. He is “hurtin more now” as he suffers from sin in private. He submits to self torture and punishment, but never reveals his deepest secret. -Dimmesdale also has trouble at night and “can’t sleep.” -When Hester and Dimmesdale meet at the brook in the later half of the novel, their feelings from seven years ago reawaken. They feel love again for each other. Dimmesdale will be “damned” without her, but cannot be with her without being discovered. From: “The Turn of a Card ”

Track 3-Characterization Supertramp with "Lady" You come across the water, Well don’t you think you outa, Be waitin a while? Are you acting, On what your heart has told you? Is nothing gonna hold you, from flying away?…” And there’s nowhere to go, though the road is stretched out before you. And the further you go, I said, -ain’t nothing gonna get you to heaven? -The “Lady” of the song is Hester. She “came across the water” to New England and later to Boston. She travels ahead of her husband to prepare a place for the two of them. -After committing adultery, Hester wears the scarlet letter “A.” The A serves as a “living sermon against sin, until the ignominious letter be engraved on her tombstone (p 63).” Hester must raise her daughter Pearl, the product of her sin, in the harsh Puritan society. -Hester must make a difficult journey to salvation. Her way “to heaven” is to raise Pearl. “The road” that is “stretched out before” her is this journey, and she has little choice but to make it to “fly away” into heaven. From: “Crisis, What Crisis?”

with "A Hazy Shade of Winter" Track 4-Symbolism Simon and Garfunkel with "A Hazy Shade of Winter" “Time, time, time, see what’s become of me, While I look around for my possibilities, I was so hard to please. But look around, leaves are brown, And the sky is a hazy shade of winter…” “Hang on to your hopes, my friend. That’s an easy thing to say, but if your hope should pass away, Simply pretend, That you can build them again. Look around, the grass is high. The fields are ripe, It’s the springtime of my life…” -The word “Time” at the beginning of the song is mentioned three times. In the novel, time will help the characters with their suffering. Over time, the symbolism of the letter “A” changes, from “adultery” to “angel” or “able.” The letter is a very important part of the entire novel. -Regardless of the plot, Puritan life goes on in the background. “The grass is high…The fields are ripe” mean that work still exists on the farms and in the fields, but is not depicted in the novel. - Author Nathaniel Hawthorne takes many opportunities to describe the gray, strict and somewhat depressing Puritan society. On Election Day, the people dress in gray. They don’t light bonfires or have banquets, etc. They wear gray garments and don’t act incredibly cheerful for a holiday. The atmosphere is almost without color or joy but is solemn and gray, hence the “sky is a hazy shade of winter.” From: “Bookends”

The End Sources http://www.ocshooters.com/Hunt/Sterling-Forest/img/Sterling-forest-brook.jpg http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114345/ iTunes (exe) http://www.anysonglyrics.com/ http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/