Nathaniel Hawthorne :: essays research papers

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMESIt was a brash, bustling, ener breedic country in whichHawthorne grew up and carved out his writing career. Thecovered wagons were rolling West, with signs that cour whileouslydeclared "California or bust" The first passenger sandbagopened, and the trains went huffing and puffing along at the(then) incredible speed of 20 miles an hour. Jackson waselected president, throwing the conservative statesmen out of shootice and ushering in the age of democracy and the commonman. It was an age between wars, when America, having beatenEngland for the second time--in the struggle of 1812--was flexing itsadolescent muscles. Hope was in the air, and also a feeling of queasiness with the imported, second-hand, European way of doingthings. "Down with the past" might have been the motto of thetime. Americans sensed a fresh, creative task at hand in thebuilding of a new country. It was a task that called for strongbacks, exculpated eye ball, and open minds. There were experiments in living deprivation on to yoke theexperiments in politics and technology. Starry-eyedintellectuals gathered outside Boston to grow on a vegetariandiet at Alcotts Fruitlands. Thoreau conducted his own privateexperiments in a life close to nature at Walden Pond. HoraceMann planned to mixed bag the world by changing education. Where was Hawthorne while all this excitement was going on?In his bedroom in Salem, reading a book. You get the distinctfeeling about this man that, so far as the great adventures ofhis time were concerned, he simply wasnt paying attention.Hawthorne was gazing intelligently off in another direction.Most of his generation looked expectantly toward the future.Hawthorne kept his eyes on the past. He was an introvert, almost a recluse, this native son of