Why does melinda identify with hester prynne from the scarlet letter(the book they are reading in english class)

Melinda feels that she can relate to Hester Prynne. Like Hester, Melinda feels marginalized and disenfranchised from the other students. She secretly wears her trauma and feels stigmatized by it. Although Melinda was not an adulterer, she sees the sense of sexual "sin" in what happened to her.