Dear Mistake Makers,
I was assigned to read The Scarlett Letter in my American Lit class. I’m not gonna lie to you it’s a pretty tough read, with Hawthorne’s old English dialect and extensive vocabulary it was pretty hard to get through. He can spend nearly two pages describing what a bug on the wall of some supporting characters house’s wall; the amount of detail he gives is pretty crazy sometimes. But for those of you that don’t have a month of your life to spend reading this book the idea is this: The story is about Hester Prynne, a girl who is married but has an affair with another man. She refuses to reveal the identity of the man keeping the secret between her and her lover. The story follows Hester and her daughter, Pearl, living with the consequences of Hester’s actions and Dimmesdale, the father of Pearl, and the physiological toll that keeping such a secret takes on him.
A big theme in the novel is not dealing with mistakes or bad decisions that we make. This is evident in the struggle that Dimmesdale is going though over the course of the book. In chapter twelve Dimmesdale turns to self-harm to deal with the guilt he is feeling, he whips himself and carves an “A” into his chest. This is because as part of Hester’s punishment she is forced to wear an “A” on her chest for the rest of her life, and because Hester will not reveal his identity publicly he is forced to suffer in private. In one of the last chapters of the book Dimmesdale reveals what he has done to everyone right before dying, the weight of this decision weighed on him literally his entire life.
After my freshman year of high school, I made the decision to move in with my father. It was a tough call to make and sometimes I do regret it, but I know that it was what was best for me to do. I miss my mom sometimes but I still see her and living with my dad is awesome; it’s one of the things I’ve wanted since I was little. So sure there are times I regret making that decision but I know it was in my best interest and that’s how I can handle the hard times that come with it.
People aren’t perfect. We make mistakes every day and learning to live with them is a part of life. There are still many people that have troubles coming to terms with decisions that they have made but it’s important that they can. Though we dislike how we feel having just tripped up, we continue to beat ourselves up way after the fact. This article is a great resource to help people deal with mistakes or bad decisions that they have made. It’s important to be able to handle these things in a healthy way, and realize that things may seem bad at first but it will all turn out for the better.
As a person I tend to keep emotions and feelings bottled up inside, much like Dimmesdale. I go through tough times and bad decisions by myself, but as of late I’ve opened up more and it makes everything much easier. Even if it’s just having someone to talk though things with is so much better than being alone during hard times.
