Scarlett Letter ?'s

1.) Different authors choose to start their books in different ways. Nathaniel Hawthorne chooses a length introduction to begin his story. There are many reasons he could have done this. One reason Hawthorne includes the Custom House inroduction is to show the reader his style of writing before he simply jumps into his story. How many times have you started reading a story and not understood what the author was talking about? By including this introduction Hawthorne attempts to eliminate some of the confusion for the reader.

Considering what this book is about, the ideas and conflicts in this book are things people most likely tried to avoid talking about at the time this book was published. Therefore, Hawthorne kind of uses the introduction to warn people that this book is a little different. Also, it seems like he tries to ease the reader into the book. He wants the book to be easily accepted by those who read it. Really this is the goal of any author. Adding an introduction to the beginning of this book was a good move on Hawthorne's part.


2.) Sometimes in hollywood movies that are based on a true story, they change how things happened for dramatic effect. Nathaniel Hawthorne does the same thing in his book. He says in the introduction that he changed some things in the story. Why do this? Again, it adds dramatic effect. Also, he may want to depict a theme that was better shown with his changes than would be shown if his story was strictly historical.

For another thing, if the story was simply about regular life in the colonies, would you read it? By embellishing his story a little bit he makes his story more interesting to read. He also makes his story controversial because of some of the things that happen. By adding all these new things he creates a fictional piece of work with some, but not all, historical background. In this way, he creates a story that was both enjoyable to read back then, and still interesting in current times.


3.) Hawthorne's embellishment has a lot of potential change on the story. One thing his changes probably did was create drama when the book came out. Already having an outrageous plot for the time period, changing and adding things to the story made it more scandalous. However, the changes were necessary to create a more exciting story. Hawthorne's story must have been one of the first pieces of fiction in the colonies. Therefore he got the satisfaction of changing literature forever.

By coming away from truth and adding changes, he gives himself more room for creativity. By doing this he does not have to stick with a story that has already been determined. Instead he is given the freedom to come up with whatever plot suits him. This must have been exciting for Hawthorne and overall the fact that he did not have a template to follow definitely benefited him.