constantly touches it and throws wild flowers at it. “She amused herself with gathering handfuls of wildflowers and flinging them, one by one, at her mother’s bosom, dancing up and down like a little elf whenever she hit the scarlet letter” (112). The scarlet letter wore by her mother inspires Pearl to make her own. “Pearl took some eel-grass and imitated as best she could on her own bosom, the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother’s A letter-the letter “A” but freshly green, instead of scarlet” (142). Pearl uses part of her home to make this letter. The green eel-grass from nature. Pearl strongly desires her mother to ask her about her A “I wonder if mother will ask me what it means” (143). Pearl understands that the scarlet letter is her mother’s punishment and embarrassment yet, Pearl is too young to understand the meaning of the scarlet letter. “And Mother, he has his hand over his heart! Is it because the minister wrote his name in the black book” (148). This statement allows one to realize that Pearl makes a connection that the fact her mother wears a scarlet letter over her bosom and Dismmedale’s habit of covering his heart with his hand. Pearl is a very observant and curious child. Pearl wants to her a story about the black man. Hester confesses “oh in my life I met the black man. This scarlet letter is his mark” (148).The child and her mother are banished from their community and church. The only place this mother and child feel at home is in the forest. Pearl grows up making connections with the natural world around her. Pearl finds herself at home when she is outside in the forest. There is a conscious desire to merge with natural objects. Pearl plays with her reflected image in *POEST, 3*a pool of water “a passage for herself with her reflected image in a pool of water and seeks a passage for...
