Is the new movie Easy A destined to be the next Mean Girls? Has Nathanial Hawthorne finally been outdone? In the latest teen comedy Easy A, which is currently in theaters, actress Emma Stone plays the role as Olive Penderghast, a student with a changing reputation for the worst! The rumored actions of Olive’s character parallels Hawthorne’s infamous Hester Prynne from his the work The Scarlet Letter, which Olive just happens to be reading in school.

Olive earns her bad “easy” reputation via a rumor that spreads around her California high school. Similar to Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, everyone stares at her and comments on the rumor and her promiscuity. Both women are also deemed beautiful by their society but still unlikely to act in such a way. Because they are beautiful on the outside, they are both found to be beautiful on the inside as well.

Olive takes many measures to relieve herself from the “sin” she has committed, but fails continually. She decides simply to act the part of an adulterer, which brings her into deeper trouble. She is unable to dismantle the house of lies that she has built and change her way of like, similar to Hester’s stoic lifestyle.

The writer and the producer of the movie use many literary allusions and do an excellent job of weaving them throughout the movie. Jokes about Sylvia Plath and other famous authors are mentioned seamlessly, with perfect timing. This helps keep a well read audience interested, and on the edge of their seat.

As a new must see for the teenage generation, Easy A perfectly combines the reality of the contemporary teenage world with an old, literary twist from Hawthorne.