In the distance, a young woman walks...alone on a path parallel to the one on which society has stopped to stare at her; she stops. She stands alone as she faces the cold world, gripping her baby close to her chest as society glares harshly down upon her with no pity, casting her aside. No man supports her as she makes her steps into a future scorned by all. Yet, she glides along with determination...slow and steady in her isolation; with every step, she thinks more and more, and becomes more and more wise toward life. Who is she? This question has two possible answers, for these three characteristics illustrate both the plight of Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and that of modern teenage mothers. Unlike Hester, I do not agree that the sin of adultery is ok to do, but I do not think that you should be punished for it.

In both cases, society scorns these women and looks down upon them as outcasts. When Hester mounts the scaffold carrying her child, the crowd reacts not with "scornful merriment," but with "somber and grave" eyes, and Hester nearly collapses under this "leaden infliction." With this cold distance they keep, not even the children o

Three hundred years have passed now, and yet these parallels still exist between the situation that Hester faces, and the situation that young mothers face today. They are isolated and looked down upon by society. Steadily, they each stand-alone with no man beside them for support. Whether it is pro or con, they develop their minds in a unique way in their isolation. It is not an easy life for anyone to lead, being a single parent, but therein lies a lesson for those who live in modern society, and especially the teen mothers who suffer the parallels. They ought to see that the path they so steadily stride down is a path from which they cannot turn back, but that they should not lose their hope. The times have changed, and while society is still quite prejudiced towards those who do not follow its correct path, it is a far cry from the Puritan society that held Hester down. Teen mothers need to realize that their paths are not so preset. Society, in turn, needs to pull itself from the Dark Ages and see that the world has changed, and their support will often be what can guide these teen mothers away from that lonely, cold path. Once these necessities are fulfilled, the hundreds of years of young women's lives being ruined by a mistake will finally draw to a close.

Also, though a modern person would not call a young mother a living "sermon against sin," teen mothers are used to make a statement to young children. More similar forms show in the parallel between the situation Hester faces with Dimmesdale, and that which teenage mothers face today. Hester refuses to name the father of her child openly, stating "my

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Approximate Word count = 1093
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)