Book Review: Reading like a Serpent: What the Scarlet a is about

Abstract

Reading Like Serpent: What Scarlet Is About. By Marilyn Chandler McEntyre. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2012. ISBN 978-1-61097-554-4. Pp. ix + 134. $18.00. With possible exception of Huckleberry Finn or To Kill Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter is text America most often offers its young as both literature and history. Yet of these three frequently assigned novels, is probably least enjoyed and least understood. As Marilyn Chandler McEntyre observes in surveying her college students, many recall The Scarlet Letter as stiff, boring, wordy, moralistic, lacking in plot, and generally incomprehensible (1). When she reveals it as one of her favorite novels, curiosity is piqued--either about hidden merits of book or about my taste and credibility. Some of them, no doubt, think I really ought get life (1). Thus emerges central premise of McEntyre's argument--namely, that The Scarlet Letter, largely misunderstood, is more playful, ambiguous, and challenging novel than is typically acknowledged, and requires shrewd and careful reader. teacher by trade as well as instinct, McEntyre promises lead us through the thickets of antique syntax and show us navigate interpretive mazes he maps (2). The Scarlet Letter, she argues, is not about adultery or host of other issues, rather about sin of bad (2). I couldn't agree more, yet my resistance rises when she adds that novel is deeply occupied with ... ways we read Scripture and that purpose in The Scarlet Letter is to invite his readers critical biblical reflection (2, 4). This does not ring true, at least for me, of New England author described by his son Julian as having never discussed religion in set terms either in his writings or in his talk (quoted in John Updike, Hawthorne's Creed Hugging Shore, 74). Is it likely that Hawthorne, whose religious orientation was ambiguous, was occupied with Scripture, or that he was inviting us engage in critical biblical reflection? I remain doubtful, yet McEntyre is such an intelligent, clear-eyed, and perceptive guide that I'm willing follow and see where she leads. Hardly first critic devote attention act of reading in The Scarlet Letter, McEntyre joins, among others, critics Stephen Railton and David Leverenz. Although McEntyre's study at times pales in comparison, it nevertheless has appeal as well as originality. As indicated in its preface, Reading Like Serpent is not meant be work of literary criticism or scholarship but rather a series of personal reflections on how literary techniques serve purposes whose urgency we still have reason recognize (ix). Although second part of that passage feels vague, book is written in an accessible, conversational style, free of academic jargon. In some respects, it reads like series of lessons or sermons on The Scarlet Letter. By sermons I don't necessarily mean author becomes preachy or tedious, but rather that she uses novel investigate, with her reader, aspects of human behavior and morality. Each of book's nine chapters--Judge by Bread Alone Become as Little Children Render Unto Caesar Confess One Another, Into Wilderness, Those Not Against Us Sick and in Prison, A Great Price--is built around scriptural principle that McEntyre employs shed light on important moments and scenes in novel. In Judge she considers Jesus' words from Matt. 7:1-2: Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured you again (23). McEntyre applies this passage opening scene of The Scarlet Letter, in which Hester, emerging from prison, is accosted by hostile group of women who seem quick judge. The women, however, are described by narrator in such acerbic and misogynistic terms that they are rendered ugly and aged, tempting reader to rush their defense (24). …