As Olivia requested assistance in writing her college essays, we began today discussing ideas and strategies for composing a personal statement. We then completed our analysis of the Scarlet Letter. Olivia studied language in the final chapters and formulated a statement of universal theme and then discussed how plot, symbols and imagery supported her statement of theme. She demonstrated a good understanding of the material . We also pieced together ideas about the meaning of the final line of the novel - "On a field, sable, the letter A gules"noting the recurring symbolism of red and black objects in the novel. Last, we discussed the role of Margaret Fuller a 19th Century feminist , on the character of Hester Prynne. The final test of the novel is scheduled for Thursday. For homework,I assigned rewriting one portion of a test response and making corrections to the SAT practice test.