Class Summary for June 5th, 2008

Hello, fellow pupils. It's Ashley with your class update! Before we began our discussion of Ethan Brand (the last story in the Hawthorne packet) Laz talked with us about letters of recommendation for next year. He said that if we ask, we shall recieve, provided that
1) We give him plenty of notice
2) We provide him with a brief résumé / any anecdotes of class discussions for him to write about
3) We include the necessary college forms
He warned that he is unflinchingly honest in his letters, and he will not write anything other than the aboslute truth. If class discussion did not center on your contributions, he is not going to say so. He also said that it is his right to deny a letter, and no one is forcing him to write them. (I.e. if you are going to ask, ask nicely and be very grateful!)

Then we proceeded to discuss Ethan Brand. This was Hawthorne's ultimate allegory. It has all the elements of the other stories and multiple symbols to interpret. Jasmine brought up the end of the story, and suggested that Ethan jumps in the fire because he doesn't consider imself a part of earth anymore. He commits suicide, but doesn't seem to care. His death is his victory in his mind.
It is obvious that the kiln's hypnotic flames represent hell, but the unpardonable sin is a bit more difficult to decipher. Ian suggested that the sin was placing the quest for higher intellect above morality. Ethan's heart was marble because his pursuit of greater knowledge led to his loss of emotion. In Judeo-Christianity, the greatest sin is denying God and losing contact with human emotion. To Hawthorne, humanity was emotion. So Ethan's marble heart makes him inhuman.
I noted that Ethan rejected nature, but ultimatly became part of it against his will. Try as he did to escape nature, he could not. His bones became lime, a mineral used for agriculture. His remains would be scattered and stay a part of earth.
We then observed the image of the 'wandering Jew'. We decided that he is a prophet with the "hand of Destiny." He carries fear and sin inside his box. Ethan looks in the box at the same time as the boy and sees nothing but a blank canvas, because he himself is sin. This blank canvas is both bad and good- bad in that it is blank, but good in that it represents ultimate potential (especially because Ethan has no moral restrictions).
Paige tied it to the image of the dog chasing its tail. It was symbolic of things 'coming full circle'. (Like ashes to ashes, or in Ethan's case, lime to lime). We begin in nature, and we end as a part of nature again. But just as the dog is not supposed to catch his tail, we are perhaps not supposed to have as much science and technology. It's not natural. (A truly romantic sentiment)