As much as I like Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter was probably one of the most destructive books ever written because of this exact point. The shame single mothers felt in those days was in many ways terribly unfair… but there were resultantly zero children having the trauma of being raised without a dad. Now that scarlet letter shame is long gone, and so is the prospect of a happy, well-adjusted childhood for ever increasing millions of innocent little boys and girls…
Exactly! *that* was hawthorne’s point and why I still like him so much… it’s not really his fault that decades of liberal scholarship/teaching turned his point around into “don’t shame anyone”
As much as I like Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter was probably one of the most destructive books ever written because of this exact point. The shame single mothers felt in those days was in many ways terribly unfair… but there were resultantly zero children having the trauma of being raised without a dad. Now that scarlet letter shame is long gone, and so is the prospect of a happy, well-adjusted childhood for ever increasing millions of innocent little boys and girls…
But, did the fathers also wear a scarlett letter?
Exactly! *that* was hawthorne’s point and why I still like him so much… it’s not really his fault that decades of liberal scholarship/teaching turned his point around into “don’t shame anyone”
yes, it was called the French Pox ;)
I'd be happy with a return to sanity with regards to single mothers in our laws! Why are we encouraging breaking up families?
You have a point here