Edward Said claims that exile is both an "unhealable rift" and an "enriching experience". It is easy to say that exile is a terrible experience, but when viewed at a different perspective, it is plain to see that exile can an enriching experience. These two remarks may be contradicting, but in reality they are interconnected in more ways than one. The tribulations on exiled characters changes their mental or physical attributes thus being able to give aid his or her community. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates this heart wrenching experience through the novel's protagonist, Hester Prynne. Through her exile, Hester exemplifies the meaning of how exile is both an alienating and enriching experience.
             Throughout the novel, Hester Prynne demonstrates how exile is an experience that hinders both the emotional and physical growth of a person. Hester Prynne's first movement into seclusion causes her to draw back both physically and emotionally from the world: "the point which drew all eyes, and, as it were, transfigured the wearer...was the Scarlet Letter, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself" (51). When Hester stand before the crowd bearing her sin upon her chest and carrying it within her arms gives the reader a glimpse into a harsh circumstance that would cause most people to diminish under the burden of public humiliation. A scene such as this does not allow the person, Hester in particular, the ability to grow and accept her sin. Anybody who is forced to stand before a jeering crowd and watch as they strip your emotional defenses down just to throw words of hatred would most definitely retreat. Hester first moments of exile could only be considered as hell, because she was not prepared for the hatred that awaited he...