At the beginning of this year, I challenged myself to read 100 books in a year. While I am nowhere near that goal, I've read a decent amount but have also learned a decent amount. For those of you who read the title of this article and thought "Oh, not that book!" I promise, this isn't that type of review. So read on for more!

We all know that The Scarlet Letter is required reading in high school, maybe even middle school, for what reason, I could never actually tell you. And if you're anything like me, you hated the book. You probably wanted to curse your teacher for ever making you struggle through the "thou's" and the "thee's" and all the other "ye olde language". As a disgruntled teenager for having to read such a long book, you probably used SparkNotes (no shame, I read half the book and used SparkNotes for the other half, sorry high school English teacher!). I never actually understood the book, besides the "woman commits adultery, gets pregnant and shunned by her entire community" part of the book. However, I revisited our dear old friend Hester Prynne and have found that this novel is so much more than what meets the eye.

For those who haven't read The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the book takes place in a colonial town. The main character, Hester Prynne, is a woman who came to this town without her husband (but was married) and proceeded to have an affair. Upon becoming pregnant, the secret of her affair was uncovered and she was labeled as an adulterer. Her punishment for this crime was to perpetually wear a scarlet A on all of her clothes for as long as she should stay within the community. Upon standing in the center of her town, scarlet A fashioned upon her dress, she was asked who the father of her baby was, and she would not speak.

Now, let's pause a minute. This woman, who clearly was not the only person involved in the act of adultery refused to reveal the name of her baby's father. Who wouldn't want to stand punishment with the person whom the crime was committed with in the first place? Who wouldn't want that kind of revenge? Well, the answer is simple. Hester.

Hester continues to raise this baby on her own and proceeds to get ridiculed by the entire community whenever she should walk through town with the child and her scarlet letter. And yet, Hester lives fearlessly. She walks the streets with her daughter proudly, raises her daughter to be a free-spirit, but still remains true to the faith that so publicly left her behind. How badass. For lack of a better word, Hester is probably the most graceful woman in this community, taking her punishment and making the best of it, providing the best life possible for her daughter, and all by herself.

Now, I don't know about you, but this was something that was never touched upon in school. Nobody ever stopped to notice the strength and positive character attributes that Hester actually had. As far as characters go, this is a huge development in her story. Hester is not your stereotypical bitter woman hiding after committing a crime, she is a bold woman who raises her daughter not to be afraid of people, to shy away from judging people, and to be educated, all while being scrutinized by every person who passes her on the street.

So, the moral of this story is simply, re-read the books you hated in school. You may learn something you never knew before, understand the story better, or even fall in love with the character you once hated. Maybe you might even regret using SparkNotes all those years ago (maybe not, SparkNotes was and always will be the saving grace of last minute book reports).

Happy reading!