Chapter 19

I'll refer to The Scarlet Letter for this one.

In chapter 19 Foster describes the importance that geography has in literature. While I was reading this chapter I was thinking about what books I have read that stand true to what he is saying. The first book I thought of right off the top of my head was The Scarlet Letter. In this book all the settings help build not just the imagery, but the plot, mood, and charaterization of each indvidual. The dreary town in Massachusetts is describe in the very opening, and the buildings and everything around the town that set the book off in the right direction by making it seem so bland. The rose described outside the courthouse or jailhouse (or whatever it was) is part of the geography as well, which shows a sign of hope and beauty when all else looks bad. The Massachusetts setting is very important to remember in this story because in that time period those people were very stuck to their ways and none of this could have taken place anywhere else. It was the Northeast that was very superstitious, religious, and paranoid. It is important to remember geography is not just setting, but can be symbollic. In The Scarlet Letter alot takes place in a forest. This forest isn't imporant only because it is outside of the town and provides Hester protection, but this forest represents the evil of the blackman, the seldomness Hester faces, the self providingness that Hester has learned. Just like a forest she is on her own. This novel's geography is very vital in setting up the book how it is, and in like many stories it would not be the same without its geography.