This blog post is for Honors English 11, 1st period. The following questions are listed below:
1.) Who do you believe is most like Lance Armstrong from the characters in The Scarlett Letter?
2.) Do you believe Lance Armstrong's guilt ate away at his being as it did to Dimmesdale's or Hester's?
3.) Is it acceptable to overlook a person's sins based upon their good deads?
NEW BLOG QUESTION:
4.) Hester was forced to wear a red A for committing adultery while Lance Armstrong was forced to have his 7 titles revoked because he was caught using drugs. Which punishment is worse, having to wear a "label" (Hester with adultery) or having a "label" taken away from you (Armstrong with his 7 titles)? Who had it worse?
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/17/us/lance-armstrong-doping/index.html
Hester has it worth. Recieving a bad title is worth than losing a good title. Her punishment forces her to wear the "A" for the rest of her life. It serves as a constant remainder to others and herself. Armstrong losing his titles will be forgotten by the public. He is no worse of from before he started biking. In addition, he will recieve sympathy for his titles being taken away, and he and others will still know he won the races. Hester recieves no such sympathy and her life will never be quite the same. Armstrong's life will return to normal eventualy and losing his titles would add very little to his judgement since everyone knows what he did. However, Hester does not have as many people judging her compared to Armstrong.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Hester's punishment is much worst. While Lance had titles just taken away from him, Hester was forced to wear a physical sign of her sin. The "A" Hester has to wear is a constant reminder to her and everyone else of what she did. The removal of titles of Lance Armstrong is not always remembered by the public and is not luring over him like the "A" which remains on Hester. Lance's crime can be forgotten, and his other good deeds can over shine it, simply because it is not always present in his life. No one can look past Hester's sin, because she has a constant reminder of it. The physical symbol of Hester sin proves her punishment to be much worse than Lance's.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Hester is most like Lance due to the fact that she has paid off her sin by doing good deeds. I also think that Lance didn't have any guilt due to all of the good that he used the money for. I also do believe that one's sin can be overlooked based upon good deeds. Lastly, due to the time periods, each punishment is equally as bad. For example, it wouldn't have been nearly as punishing to take away a title during the puritan era, same as publicly shaming during the present era.
ReplyDeleteI think that Hesters ppunishment is worst. She will have to go through the rest of her life with an A on her chest and reminded of it everyday. Lance Armstrong will get his titles revoked and eventually will forget about them. Everyone will always know Hester as the girl who committed adultery and no one will ever forget that because of the A but, soon everyone will forget about Lances titles being revoked.
ReplyDelete1: I believe that Lance Armstrong is most like Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, on the concepts that both have committed a vice that is heavily weighted by society, that the vice itself has been revealed to the public, and that the vice (predicting the future of Lance Armstrong’s public relations) loses its weight in describing the overall character of the individual that committed the vice.
ReplyDelete2: I do not believe that Lance Armstrong’s guilt has eaten away from him, as with Reverend Dimmesdale or even Hester Prynne, on the basis that Lance has currently not shown any true signs of regret to the public, and even denies certain elements pertaining to his deception.
3: I believe, to an extent, that a person’s virtues may outweigh their vices. A person may commit a vice in order to do a greater good, or do a greater good to “repay” society (or an other corporation). In the case of Hester Prynne, the townspeople views Hester as a more virtuous citizen for tending to the poor, even though she had committed adultery.
4: I believe that in most cases, having a label taken away from an individual is a worse punishment than receiving a label. In most cases, an individual who will cheat to receive a title would give that title value, and having that title taken away would translate into a loss. An individual may think little or not at all of acquiring a negative title while committing vice. All aspects of this contrast, however, are variable, and may yield instances where the malevolent or benevolent title may have less weight than the other (representing the same vice).
IN my opinion Hester had it worse then Lance. I believe this because she will always have that A on her and she cannot get rid of it. Where as Lance may have lost his titles but he still knows he is the best biker ever. Also with Hester everyone can see her A where as Lance some people may not have even heard of his punishment and crime. That is in my opinion wearing an A is worse than having some titles revoked.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Hester had it worse because the scarlet symbol on her chest was a constant reminder of the sin she committed. Also, the symbol was there for everyone to see if they knew her or not. Hester committed something that she would be constantly reminded of until the day she died. On ther other hand, Lance's titles were taken away from him but based on his lack of response to his crime it does not seem like he cares. It is almost an example that it doesn't matter if he had those titles in the first place because he loves to ride bikes. Therefore, to him the titles do not matter. Also, many people in modern society are not aware of Lance's crimes because he doesn't bear them physically throughout each day. Therefore, the people who don't know him as well may not know is crimes which, for him, is easier to live with. Therefore, Lance has it easier off because of the lack of visibility his crime has and his personal importance of the sport of bikeriding rather than the personal importance of having seven titles.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Hester has it worse because even though you can take something away like awards from Lance Armstong that represented good they will always be seen as symbols of good and he will most likely be remembered as such. However Hester has the scarlet A to represent her which was a symbol of sin and evil. She had to redeem herself, yet people still remembered her for committing adultery.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Hester has it a lot worse then Lance in the long run. I think that having a negative symbol forced upon you is much harsher then having good things taken away from you. While Lance will be seen in a negative light for a short period of time, there is not a symbol reminding the public of the bad things he did. After a while the good things he has done will over shadow his mess up and people will forget all about his drug use. In Hester's case she has a constant reminder sitting on her chest, so no matter what good she does in the future, she will always be seen as the girl who committed the sin of adultery.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I believe Hester had it worse. I think this because the symbol represents something bad that Hester has done where Armstrong would still have something good about him. Basically Hester will only be looked at for her harsh things while Armstrong will still be looked at badly but he also will have some good things to make up for it.
ReplyDeleteThis is Payton Fricke's response just on my account:
ReplyDeleteI think that Hester's punishment is worse. I came to this conclusion by putting myself into the shoes of a stranger that didn't know Hester or Lance. I wouldn't be able to tell that Lance had his titles taken away from him by just looking at him but Hester's punishment is visible to the public and she can't hide from it. By just looking down, Hester will be reminded that she committed adultery. Anyone can see with the naked eye her A so therefore her punishment seems more severe and unavoidable. I think its worse to have a bad stigma than to have your positive achievements overlooked.