You can tell by the way people write on the internet that they have never read a book, let alone a classic with an important lesson to learn.

I wrote this hours ago and I want to remark that it seems that story isn't relevant to the facts of the situation gone on here and I shouldn't have invoked it. It's too late to edit my original post, which is fine, because I can still recant in a secondary post.

The story that this article is referencing may not be about marking those we dislike with an emblem meant to separate them; but, something more complicated and with many details I don't know; so, I want to roll back this particular comment.

The message was very easily missed because the story doesn't actually start until halfway through the book. Most of our class had already given up on the book by that point.

There's a movie based on it called Easy A [0], set in highschool, that gets across a similar message except it actually works because it's a comedy that keeps you interested.

(And I only say "similar" instead of "the same" because although I can remember what the A was, I can't remember anything about the narrative in The Scarlet Letter)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_A

I have a feeling a lot of people missed that one, along with the writing of George Orwell.