The Scarlet Letter is Like...

After reading the introduction of Pearl in The Scarlet Letter, I immediately thought of a certain character, Carrie. The horror movie Carrie came out last year based on the book by Stephen King and is about a "devil child" teenage girl with supernatural abilities. Carrie’s mother is a devoutly religious, and always punishes Carrie for doing normal activities that are deemed inappropriate by the mother. However, it is revealed that Carrie’s mother gave birth to Carrie out of wedlock; hence she is a “devil” born out of sin. One time, when beaten by her mother, Carrie screams that it isn’t her who is the sinner, but it is her mother who has done the sinning. Her mom accuses Carrie of being a “slut”, “whore girl”, and “jezebel” when Carrie wants to dress like normal girls at school instead of the long dresses and shirts she is always forced to wear by her mother. Carrie also has telekinetic abilities that her mother believes are traits only of the devil. Similarly, Pearl in The Scarlet Letter was born out of wedlock. Also, she is described as moving “by her ordinary freakishness, or because an evil spirit prompted her” (Hawthorne 95). Both girls have religious mothers who have sinned, causing their sin to be passed down to their children, who are devil- children and have strange devilish abilities. What a coincidence, though I wouldn't say they look quite so similar...