How is Melinda from Speak similar to Hester from The Scarlet Letter?

I think that a case can be made as to how Melinda bears
similarity to Hester.  Both are socially maligned.  Their social maligning happens
because society was wrong in its judgment of each.  At the same time, both characters do
not capitulate or take their own lives in the wake of being socially ostracized. 
Instead, they both use the opportunity to empower one another.  While they were both
done wrong by men who had ulterior motives and a social order that refused to validate
their voices and experiences, both women use the opportunity to serve as a reminder to
these very social orders of how wrong they actually are.  In both of their presences,
the reader understands quite vividly how wrong social orders can be and how the
practices of demonization and isolation rarely help anyone.  This is how both characters
end up reclaiming their voices and learn to “speak” in their own
ways.