The Scarlet Letter and Guy Trouble. Please help.?

It's a pretty complex work. I believe I read it, oh, probably 15 years ago, in 10th grade.

I'm sure there are a zillion summaries for you online, which should help in any discussion.

Hawthorne was by no means in favor of Puritan ways.

I mainly reference it in my mind these days in a feminism context, when I think of what I call the "Hester Prynne complex" -- namely, how even now, American women hide their sexuality out of fear of being publicly shamed (you might also call it "fear of being labeled a 'wh*re' or 'sl*t'"); it's peculiar to American society, in that we place the onus for much sexual "sin" (i.e., basically, having sexuality) upon women, not men. This purity expectation, and raising girls with it, tends to create a dual personality among women, whereby they cannot admit what they may actually want; it also creates confusion among men as to what women want.

(In the event you didn't know, the "scarlet letter" is the red letter "A," for "adultery," that the fictional Prynne was forced to wear on her chest throughout her life, as public punishment.)

I would say that if you've ever wondered why America tends to be a bit different from the rest of the world in how we view sex (what some might call our "Puritan ways"), this book provides a glaring insight into where it all came from and how strange its patriarchal ways can be.

As to the rest of your questions, it seems you don't know this fellow that well. I wouldn't get too worked up over him, whether by counting smiles in sentences, awaiting some date a month from now, or anything else. The flirting game between two people usually boils down to supply and demand, and who's least desperate. That person has the position of power. Make sure it's you. That is to say, don't be afraid to see other guys between now and Sept. 18. It'll increase your confidence and decrease any signals of desperation you might inadvertantly broadcast to the guitar guy.

there replace right into a very well-liked novel written with the aid of Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 approximately an adulteress who replace into compelled to placed on a Scarlet (crimson) Letter "A" on her chest in her small pilgrim community after she became pregnant with yet another guy's new child (different than her husbands) The "A" replace into for adulteress and this modification into to coach her disgrace to all who observed her