Beginning of Essay
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Mark Twain each had a different view on how an individual does and should interact with society. They each pointed fingers at what caused the friction between a person and his society. Several themes run common to th ....

Middle of Essay
.... religion. Through all these characters’ actions, Hawthorne shows us why the Puritan society was in disarray. He agrees with Thoreau and Twain in that society is corrupt and that society is the problem. However, he seems to put more blame on the individual than on the masses. Hester and her daughter, of course, were not actually Puritans, but Hawthorne is just using them as an example of how no society will ever remain “pure” because it is impossible for the people within the society to remain pure. This is a very dark and pessimistic view, because it does not leave room for much hope or improvement in the human race. No one can ever be what he ....