Posted by Anonymous on 2012/04/05 under Uncategorized In this diagram of concepts, each “bubble” or circle represents an idea, or concept. If “blue” were the circle, for example, it would include all things relating to blue, or just general blueness.
Within this diagram there is the Puritan society which is connected with stability, theocracy and civilization as well as Hester Prynne as she is living in the Puritan society. On the other hand, there is the United States of America which is connected to liberty, democracy and innovation.
Hester is also linked with innovation because she isn’t conforming to the puritans around her. She’s also connected to the Nature circle because this is the direction of her innovation-rather than changing in the way of becoming civilized, she changes to become closer to nature. By virtue of this, she is an outcast to the puritans yet we, as Americans today, cannot see her as she really is either.
Because the USA and Puritan societies both have different values from each other, including theocracy which revolves around a religion, and democracy which does not, they both view Hester affected by the ideas they value and support. This is supported by the shades of each circle and as the circles meet, so do the colors and so they influence each other. It is because of this that the perspectives of the Puritans and USA (generally speaking) will not only never align, but will also never see Hester as she really is.
In terms of the diagram and colors, we will always have “shades” on tinting all that we see around us. Though we can still see what is truly there, we see it in a different way.
The fact of the matter is, though, that it’s not just values that influence people, and societies as they are made up of people, but anything they experience. Because of this, we can never step “outside” or “beyond” these experiences to see the unbiased truth, that is, Hester as she really is. Hester is thus just an idea, just “object x” that is defined as we perceive her. Of course, our perception tendencies are influenced by what’s around us and what we value, as displayed in the diagram.
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