Scarlet Letter
The Pariah
??The talk of the neighboring townspeople, who, seeking vainly elsewhere for the child?s paternity, and observing some of her odd attributes, had given out that poor little Pearl was a demon offspring?? ? page 95 of Nathaniel Hawthorne?s The Scarlet Letter. Since Pearl had no known father, the townspeople gossiped freely of Hester and her Pearl. Because Dimmesdale was not revealed as her father until later in the novel, Pearl suffered the early years of her life as an outcast. Pearl was taunted and stared at by other children. She was even almost taken away from Hester as a toddler. Despite being born of shameful beginnings, Pearl overcomes her lowly status as an outcast; although she is labeled as the ?witch child? of an ignominious mother, does not get a clear explanation of her origin until the day of her father?s death, and when she does, it changes her fate as the ?under-dog?.
Everyone has been teased in his or her lifetime. Some forms are harmless, and others are down right cruel. Teasing pertains to Pearl because she is teased unmercifully by the Puritan children. ?? The children of the Puritans looked up from their play? and spoke gravely one
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