Entry 21:
"The child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison door."
She refused many times to answer Mr. Wilson's question. She knew who had made her, and was smart enough to know who the heavenly father was, but instead decided to be stubborn. Then she told him that her mother had plucked her from a rose bush by the jail cell.
If you think about an un-plucked rose.. it's confined to the bush itself and can't be let free. The town, like a jail cell, is like the 'bush' and everyone in the town is like a rose. No one else has been 'plucked' from the actual plant though. Being plucked from the bush, takes you away from society and gives you the ability to believe and do things their own way, like Pearl. I would much rather be plucked then have to be on the containing bush.
Then you can look at Hester and think that maybe her flower went weak, and fell off the plant. Then, by sinning, she plucked Pearl off it as well.
Some interesting thoughts here. Search to see if there is a connection between rose bushes and sin? Also note the garden allusion (as in Garden of Eden). Rose bushes usually carry sexual overtones.
ReplyDelete