The Scarlet Letter

It seemed to be his wish and purpose to mask this expression with a smile; but the latter played him false, and flickered over his visage so derisively that the spectator could see his blackness all the better for it. Ever and anon, too, there came a glare of red light out of his eyes; as if the old man's soul were on fire, and kept on smouldering duskily within his breast, until, by some casual puff of passion, it was blown into a momentary flame...
In a word, old Roger Chillingworth was striking evidence of man's faculty of transforming himself into a devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a devil's office...
The scarlet letter burned on Hester Prynne's bosom. Here was another ruin, the responsibility of which came partly home to her. (This passage was taken from page148 of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne.)

After Chillingworth found out that Hester had betrayed him, he decided he wanted revenge. So, he turned himself into a monster being controlled by his evil desires of hate and bitterness and the lust for others to feel the pain he felt. Hester saw this monster that used to be her husband and felt as if it was her fault that this had happened. But it was not her fault. It was his choice! If he had forgiven her and Dimmesdale, forgotten the whole thing, and went on his merry way, none of this would have happened and Chillingworth would still be a respectable scholar and doctor. He could have been like Hester who forgave the community and still helped them even though they gave her the scarlet letter. Choices, choices, choices...

Comments
subject: Nathaniel's subject was the fact that Chillingworth had turned himself into a monster and Hester felt it was her fault, even though Chillingworth chose to let his evil desires rule him.
purpose: Nathaniel's purpose was to help us to understand exactly what had happened to Chillingworth and that he was now the "bad guy" in the book.
audience: Nathaniel's audience was us, the intelligent people who now realize that Hester and Chillingworth chose different paths, but could have turned out the same way. Either Hester trying to take revenge on the town for giving the scarlet letter, or Chillingworth forgiving and forgetting what Hester had done.

The Brief Bedford Reader

I once asked a local advertiser why he didn't include disabled people in his spots. His response seemed direct enough: "we don't want to give people the idea that our product is just for the handicapped."... If you saw my blind niece ordering a Coke, would you switch to Pepsi lest you be struck sightless? No, I think the advertiser's excuse masked a deeper and more anxious rationale: To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anybody's life. If it is effaced completely, or at least isolated as a separate "problem," so that it remains at a safe distance from other human issues, then the viewer won't feel threatened by her or his own physical vulnerability. (This passage was taken from the article Disability by Nancy Mairs.)

I think what Nancy said was right. We "normal" people are afraid of disability because we know so little about it. If we were taught more about it and realized that disability is part of everyday life, we would probably be quicker to accept the people around us who are disabled and want to help them since they can not completely help themselves. I do not think it is right to ignore the hurting people. If anything, we should be paying more attention to them, since the "normal" people can take care of themselves. The disabled need hope and we can give it to them. That was what Nancy was trying to say.