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How is oppression of women a common theme of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Assata Shakur's autobiography, Assata?

Both The Scarlet Letter and Assata detail misogynistic treatment of women. The Scarlet Lettertells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman punished for her sexuality by the patriarchal Puritan society she lives in. The gendered double standards regarding the treatment of sexuality are most evident when Hester is compared to Reverend Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale is the father of Hester's illegitimate child, and he condemns her for her actions while facing no consequences for committing the...

Both The Scarlet Letter and Assata detail misogynistic treatment of women. The Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman punished for her sexuality by the patriarchal Puritan society she lives in. The gendered double standards regarding the treatment of sexuality are most evident when Hester is compared to Reverend Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale is the father of Hester's illegitimate child, and he condemns her for her actions while facing no consequences for committing the same crime:



Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph over the evil within thee, and the sorrow without.



Assata, the autobiography of Black revolutionary Assata Shakur, conveys the experience of Black womanhood. Assata details her relationship with white-centric beauty standards, the harassment and abuse she receives from men, and her experience as a woman incarcerated in men's prisons. One quote about the misogynistic violence Assata experiences as a teenager is the following:



Back then, when i was growing up, boys gang-banging or gang-raping a girl was a pretty common thing. They called it pulling a train. It didn’t happen to any particular kind of girl. It happened to girls who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. The boys talked about it like it was a joke or a game, like they were “only” out to have some “fun.”


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