In this excerpt Hawthorne devotes much time to describing the scaffold before having Hester climb it to take her place. In Seven to Ten complete sentences explain how this detail helps to create tension in the narrative. be sure to support your explanation using details from the text.

The greatest gift the sumerians gave the world was the invention of writing. the sumerians were wealthy people. they needed some way to keep track of what they owned. they began drawing pictures. they used a reed as a pen. they drew on soft pieces of clay. the soft clay was then dried in the sun. the tablet became a permanent record. later, the sumerian drawings changed into wedge-shaped symbols. this kind of writing is called cuneiform. by putting symbols together, the sumerians could write entire sentences.