Scarlet Letter Dialect Journal, 18 Ch. 10

Pearl makes the A out of prickly burrs on the grave because she watches her mother create things all the time. She also constinly sees the Red A on her mothers chest. But why Hawthorne did it is a completley different story. Placing the A on the tomb is saying that he is holding sins, and cannot express them, because he is now dead. Then when pearl throws prickly burrs at Dimmsdale because he is holding sin inside of him. Also she throws it at him, because she has a fatherly instinct towards him. She doesnt exactly know that she is her father but, she un-knowingly knows it.