National Identity and Symbolism

The Scarlet Letter is a novel that is rich in characters and symbolism, having never read this classic, I found myself wishing for more time to read it a second time, especially after reading Lauren Berlant’s critique of it, The Anatomy of National Fantasy, I was not quite sure if I understood all of her points. After reading this, I thought about the many symbols we connect with in our everyday lives that relate to our identity on many levels—national, state, city, school, etc. Berlant discusses the National Symbolic, “[It] thus seeks to produce a fantasy of national integration, although the content of this fantasy is a matter of cultural debate and historical transformation” (22). She gives the Statue of Liberty as an example of a symbol that represents the people. She says, “Articulating the national symbol as an expression by “the people” and of “the people,” the world’s popular capitalization of the statue provided an opportunity for the self-styled “masses” to take ownership of the symbolic material of national fantasy—a populism of the symbol long reinforced by the statue's crucial placement in the American experience of immigrants who saw it as the national boundary” (22). Monuments such as this, natural wonders, or manmade creations all can serve to represent the American public; however, not everyone will interpret them in the same way and therefore this reduces the collective identity. Many years ago, when the colonists were becoming established, they did not refer to themselves as Americans but as Virginians or whatever their state/city was at the time; this was important to maintain sovereignty. Today, the national identity of America may continue to be a mystery and one that we will continue to solve individually.
One other point that was interesting in my reading is an essay referring to Hawthorne, a notebook entry written by him states, “Is truth a fantasy which we are able to pursue forever and never grasp?” This search for truth is found throughout The Scarlett Letter, but particularly involves Pearl and the identity of her father. The townspeople and Chillingworth desire to discover the answer, but it remains a mystery. Hester Prynne bears the burden of this secret and is measured and hurt by this judgmental society. There is a connection between this idea of pursuing the truth and society’s desire to pursue happiness. Berlant makes references to the idea of happiness several times throughout her critique in regards to the political, collective life. She writes, “Happiness, which Americans are fundamentally defined as in righteous pursuit of, is the result of being able to separate everyday from national life” (199). She continues on to say that Americans have to forget their personal memory in order to preserve the national identity. On the one hand, Hester participates in this by teaching Pearl indirectly about the political arena they live in and what the expectations are in this society, and on the other hand, she finds her own type of happiness in her everyday tasks and life. Perhaps the pursuit of truth and national identity occur in a more sporadic timeframe and in various arenas, but the pursuit of happiness occurs every day in the rituals of daily life. Kristin