Ethan Brand
Well now
This story doesn't seem to have an overriding theme to it. You don't find out what this unpardonable sin is. You don't know what Ethan Brand did to that old man's daughter. You don't even get to find out what happened to that dog.
What's going on here?
Let's try to figure this out.
Obviously the whole lime burning business is significant. Otherwise, why would Ethan Brand be a lime-burner?
Lime burning was burning limestone to create slaked lime which would help fertilize crops by reducing the acidity of the soil. The whole process was dangerous and culminated in the slaking process, which could be done by adding water to quicklime. This caused a very violent reaction. Lime burning was a dangerous business because of the hazards of burns and becoming blind.
Ethan Brand's life could probably be likened to the "lifecycle" of limestone. It sits in a furnace, getting hotter and hotter until it becomes slaked and is usable in fertilizing crops or creating mortar.
This would mean that there was an underlying lesson from Ethan Brand's life. Could it be just "don't go crazy" or could it be "Don't bother with finding the unpardonable sin?" This is tricky because there are very few links between the details of the story.
Moreover, we can say that no one really cared about Ethan Brand. This is evidenced by all the little diversions that occurred when all the villagers came up to the lime kiln. This is probably because they knew Ethan was crazy and didn't really care what he had to say cause, well... he's crazy. It's not like he said much anyway. Also, Bartram, by crushing Brand's remains, shows little interest in his life.
Maybe that's the unpardonable sin. Perhaps the sin is living a life where no one cares for you. This seems to be the most likely option because Ethan lived a life of loneliness and pushed away any type of friendship he might encounter.
That seems good for now. More to say tomorrow in class :P
Sorry if I repeated anything from class today.
-Albert
This story doesn't seem to have an overriding theme to it. You don't find out what this unpardonable sin is. You don't know what Ethan Brand did to that old man's daughter. You don't even get to find out what happened to that dog.
What's going on here?
Let's try to figure this out.
Obviously the whole lime burning business is significant. Otherwise, why would Ethan Brand be a lime-burner?
Lime burning was burning limestone to create slaked lime which would help fertilize crops by reducing the acidity of the soil. The whole process was dangerous and culminated in the slaking process, which could be done by adding water to quicklime. This caused a very violent reaction. Lime burning was a dangerous business because of the hazards of burns and becoming blind.
Ethan Brand's life could probably be likened to the "lifecycle" of limestone. It sits in a furnace, getting hotter and hotter until it becomes slaked and is usable in fertilizing crops or creating mortar.
This would mean that there was an underlying lesson from Ethan Brand's life. Could it be just "don't go crazy" or could it be "Don't bother with finding the unpardonable sin?" This is tricky because there are very few links between the details of the story.
Moreover, we can say that no one really cared about Ethan Brand. This is evidenced by all the little diversions that occurred when all the villagers came up to the lime kiln. This is probably because they knew Ethan was crazy and didn't really care what he had to say cause, well... he's crazy. It's not like he said much anyway. Also, Bartram, by crushing Brand's remains, shows little interest in his life.
Maybe that's the unpardonable sin. Perhaps the sin is living a life where no one cares for you. This seems to be the most likely option because Ethan lived a life of loneliness and pushed away any type of friendship he might encounter.
That seems good for now. More to say tomorrow in class :P
Sorry if I repeated anything from class today.
-Albert
8 Comments:
Dealing with the Unpardonable Sin, didn't he always point to his heart. I like Albert's way of thinking that he (Ethan Brand) was the Unpardonable Sin because he was not cared for. But, if he is always saying he found the Unpardonable Sin and pointing to his heart that makes me think it's a feeling inside you.
With these short stories I feel there is always an underlying value at hand. Maybe the Unpardonable Sin is not caring for people, if I branch off of one of Albert's ideas. Because, it seemed like Brand had a hatred for everything. On the first meeting with the drunk men from the tavern, doesn't he tell them to be gone. I thought that was very rude of him.
I guess what i'm looking for are some other ideas of what the Unpardonable Sin could be.
Love,
Scotty P
Scott's idea is pretty convincing. I guess the Unpardonable Sin could be both living a life of lonliness and living a life where you shun everyone. Or it could be living the life of lonliness as a result of shunning everyone. Tricky.
Mr. Lazarow said that this story combines the ancestral guilt, secret sin, and changing people idea from the previous stories. The ancestral guilt falls into play when he returns to the lime kiln. He basically feels guilty for neglecting his former duties and feels the need to go back and tend to his duties one last time.
The secret sin is pretty obvious. The Unpardonable Sin is the secret sin. It's pretty darn secret cause we still don't know for sure what it is.
The changing people aspect comes into play when Ethan Brand remembers how he performed psychological experiments on that old man's daughter (Esther?). Also, how he pushes people away is probably a response to his desire to change people.
Any other ideas?
Albert...im confused when you say his way of trying to change people is by pushing them away. I don't understand the story fully...im sure tomorrow we'll go over anything...but my opinion as of right now that his decision of secluding himself has nothing to do with trying to change others...i feel like he wouldve made more of an attempt to either interact and change, or insult them to make them think differently of themselves, which could inspire change. But, then, I do have the question of why does he feel it's necessary to change people? if anyone could comprehend what i just wrote i'd love some feedback..
My opinions are subject to change, but I agree with Scott. I don't think that the Unpardonable Sin is Ethan Brand himself but his act of alienating himself from society - and therefore from humanity.
"But where was the heart? That, indeed, had withered, --had contracted,--had hardened,--had perished! It had ceased to partake of the universal throb. He had lost his hold of the magnetic chain of humanity."
His humanity is gone after simply studying human beings and not involving himself in it. Ethan Brand went on this whole journey to 'look into the hearts of others', right? By withdrawing any personal or emotional connection with society, Ethan Brand was only "a cold observer, looking on mankind as the subject of his experiment, and, at length, converting man and woman to be his puppets, and pulling the wires that moved them to such degrees of crime as were demanded for his study."
I'm not really sure how this can be paralleled to...secret sin or ancestral guilt, but it does refer to experiments as dehumanizing and void of human emotion? Maybe?
I meant the Unpardonable Sin to be living in loneliness, more along the lines of what tina said.
Jillie: He's not trying to change them by pushing them away. He's pushing them away because of the desire to change them, i.e. he wants to change them but he can't so instead he just tells them to go away :P
perhaps the unpardonable sin is a combination of what allof you are saying. Ethan Brand gave up his life at Greylock to go in search of a the "unpardonable Sin." In doing so, he let go of his life back at Greylock.
Perhaps before he left he was more liked; however, people thought less of him once he conveyed his somewhat farfetched ideas and set off on his journey.
If he wasn't very well liked before either, then he gave up trying. He didn't make the sufficient effort to get involved in his community and become appreicate.
Thus, maybe the Unpardonable Sin can be defined as giving up or letting go of opportunities one has to better themseleves personally or among their social peers
I guess the Unpardonable Sin is completely subject to interpretation, but I'm not so sure that secluding yourself from society is sinful. Are hermits necessarily sinful, or how about people who devote themselves to a life of religion, but in seclusion? Rather, I feel that using people as puppets and encouraging people to sin on a grand sacle is the Unpardonable Sin. Then again, it could just be that there is no Unpardonable Sin, which is why neither Hawthorne nor Ethan Bran reveals what it is. I think that Ethan Bran's not sharing the Unpradonable Sin is more likely becuase he felt remorse, but perhaps he never found it.
Also, how exactly is Ethan Bran crazy? (Forgive me, but I just have a hard time categorizing people as crazy!) I know it is not typical for people to seek "the Unpardonable Sin," but does that necesarily mean that a person is crazy if he or she does seek the sin? I don't mean to dive into religion, but I personally have wondered if there is a sin that God won't forgive you for. According to my personal beliefs, the answer is no. I mention this merely to say that the curiosity over sin is natural, but I don't want to downplay that using people as puppets is wrong, either.
Again, this is subject to interpretation, so if anyone would like to share why exactly they think Ethan Bran is crazy, I would be glad to hear from them.
--Caroline
To a certain extent, I agree with Caroline.
Isolating oneself from society is not such a significant action that one could consider it the "Unpardonable Sin."
Performing psychological experiments on people and "annihilating [their souls]" certainly comes a step closer to being unpardonable.
I don't necessarily agree that it's unpardonable to encourage other people to sin on a grand scale. To be honest, I haven't decided on that matter yet. I think that "encouraging other people to sin on a grand scale" is still too minor a sin to be unpardonable because people have free will, and a true believer should not be corrupted by the encouragement to sin. Hmm... I don't think I have a strong enough stance on this topic to argue it one way or the other. Basically, I think you could take it either way.
Perhaps the Unpardonable Sin is the ability to dehumanize other people. To view them as objects that can be quantified, analyzed, and changed with no ramifications.
(SIDE NOTE: The Unpardonable Sin seems to be one which is very much up to personal interpretation. Every person comes into a piece of literature with different tools and perspectives for analysis. Anyway, I suppose what I've written tells more about me than it does the "true interpretation" of the work.)
--Danielle
SIDE, SIDE NOTE:
I'm posting Mrs. Hughes' email address because otherwise I'll lose it. Ms. Hughes, feel free to cut your email address out by logging into the master account.
hughes63@students.rowan.edu)
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