Nathaniel Hawthorne Essay -- Authors

Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American writer was the child of Elizabeth Clarke Manning and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He is a descendent of a long line of Puritan ancestors which of one is his great-grandfather John Hathorne who was a judge in the Salem witch trials. He was not proud of his family’s background and in order to disassociate himself with them he added a â€Å"w† to his last name to make it Hawthorne. Hawthorne’s father was a ship Captain in the U.S. Navy and died of yellow fever when Hawthorne was four-years-old. After his father died his mother became overly protective of him and that left him to be shy and bookish. Later on that is what molded his career as a writer. In 1821 Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College and graduated four years later - He chose a school that was close to his mom and sisters. After graduation he turned his passion of writing and published his first novel Fanshawe. This novel was unsuccessful, but it did not discourage Hawthorne. A few years later he wrote a few short stories and â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† was one of the famous ones. After realizing he could not make a living as a writer (because of the financial needs) he decided to enter the work force. In 1839 he obtained a job with Boston Custom House, but was dismissed three years later. By 1842 his writings began to _______________ and he was able to maintain a suitable income. Only then did he marry Sofia Peabody and moved to The Manse in Concord, Massachusetts which was the center of the Transcendental movement. In 1845 Hawthorne returned to Salem and devoted himself to his most famous novel, The Scarlett Letter. He described this novel as a â€Å"hell-firing story.† It was published in 1850 and was an... ...ment. The townspeople of Boston stopped communicating with him because of the simple black veil that shielded his face. '"I don't like it,'' muttered an old woman,' as she hobbled into the meeting-house. ’He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face.' The evidence of a veil concealing his face frightened the people of this small Puritan town. Elizabeth, his fiancà ©e demanded, "Lift the veil but once, and look me in the face." She established the fact that she and the other people are definitely afraid of the unknown. The veil teaches individuals to have courage and to abstain from arrogance. The people of the town were very arrogant in their mind set. They all contradicted to their principle beliefs; therefore, they were hypocrites of their own nature. The minister tried to reflect everyone's flaws by using the black veil as an object.