As a reader of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter today, it is safe to say that many of us are shocked by the treatment of Hester Prynne at the hands of her Puritan society. We feel that we have grown as a society, and that as American citizens who value the separation between Church and […]
The story of Hester Prynne’s persecution in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter encapsulates an issue that bothers me regarding society and religion: specifically, those individuals who oppress others in the name of religion. Not only can these actions be cruel, as is the ostracism in the case of Hester Prynne, but it also goes against […]
If sex is merely a societal construct, as French philosopher Michel Foucault claims, then it would follow that sex would be viewed differently in separate cultures with their distinct social formations. By that logic, sex would be viewed in one light in France, and in another in Italy. However, Foucault presents his reasoning on the […]
