Sin is a powerful force that has the ability to destroy anything that comes in its path. In life, sin is able to control people and manipulate them into different individuals. Nowhere is this capability more evident than in Hawthorne¡s writing. Hawthorne uses powerful stories to display the pain and troubles even the smallest peccadillo can cause. In both ¡§Young Goodman Brown¡ and The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne demonstrates that shame and guilt caused by sin are capable of escalating to mask the true humans behind their curtains.
             The scarlet letter disables Hester Prynne from fulfilling her potential, yet she is able to survive by becoming a different person. She can no longer live the life she once had. The letter, which represents all sins, hides Hester¡s beauty and passion, to the extent that she only becomes known as the carrier of the letter. As the narrator states,
             The effect of the symbol¡Xor rather, of the position in respect to society that was indicated by it¡Xon the mind of Hester Prynne herself, was powerful and peculiar. All the light and graceful foliage of her character had been withered up by this red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline, which might have been repulsive, had she possessed friends or companions to be repelled by it. Even the attractiveness of her person had undergone a similar change. (142)
             The shame, that the letter represents, imprisons Hester¡s heart and blocks it from being expressed. Hester¡s true identity is hidden behind the letter, which repels all, including sunshine. The effects are never more evident than when Hester¡s own daughter acknowledges that Hester¡s soul hides behind a veil. '"Mother," said little Pearl, "the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom¡¡(160). In this simple comment, Pearl says much more than she knows. She identifies the fact that Heste...