Aim: How does Pearl represent a hope for the future of Puritanism?

Objective: Students should understand that Hawthorne wants the reader to see Pearl as the symbolic Messiah or one who will instigate change in the future for Puritan society.

Procedure:

1. Students should read Chapter 6,  " Pearl ".
2. Ask students what the connotations of the word Pearl are (answers include beautiful, rare, unique, brilliant; students will also say it is something beautiful that comes from something ugly) .
3. Direct students to the pictures from lesson 2 and have them write how these ideas relate to Pearl's life.

   Picture 1

   Picture 2

   Picture 3

   Picture 4

   Picture 5

   Picture 6

   Picture 7

   Picture 8

4. Engage students in a discussion about how Pearl looks and acts and how she is treated. Students could be divided into groups to explore this idea. The question should be how does she represent Hester's sin (answers include ideas related to how she dresses elaborately, like the letter on Hester's dress indicating she is proud of who she is; she abides by no rules and she is ostracized by the Puritan community; students should pick up on how she is insightful and sees things that others do not such as Dimmesdale's guilt; she also implies to Dimmesdale that he must come clean and reveal his lies, indicating the need for the Puritan society to know the truth).
5. At the end of the novel, we know that Pearl has fled, but we are left with a sense that she did her duty and hopefully changed the minds of some of the people. Hawthorne wants the reader to understand that Pearl was a tool used to reveal the truths of the sins.

Possible final activity could include making a picture by hand or using Google to find pictures that symbolize Hawthorne's feelings towards Pearl 's role in society.