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The Custom House

1) An introduction is a preface by an author or speaker in explanation of the subject or design of his writing or discourse (Webster’s Student Dictionary, 378). An introduction provides the audience with a detailed description of the story that is soon to come. When the author creates an introduction for the audience, the audience is provided with the author’s purpose, background information, or explanations for writing the book. Without an introduction for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, the audience would not be able to fully comprehend the author’s point of view. The audience would be baffled on certain situations, unaware of the significance of certain moments, and clueless on what some terms mean. Hawthorne’s primary purpose for the Custom House introduction is to give the audience background information on future important details.
The Custom House introduction supplied the audience with information on the how the Custom House members and citizens were only destroying Salem. Hawthorne said, “these old gentlemen seated, like Matthew, at the receipt of customs, but not very liable to be summoned thence, like him, for apostolic errands,” (Hawthorne, 7). Since the citizens were “not very liable to be summoned thence…for apostolic errands,” it signifies how Hawthorne believed that all the citizens were far from attaining an afterlife with God. When he states “ her own merchants and ship owners,” (Hawthorne, 6) are hurting her, the author is telling the audience that the merchants and ship owners are hurting Salem. It provides the audience with a clear statement from the author saying that he personally believed Salem’s own businessmen were bringing harm to their hometown. “They spent a good deal of time…asleep in their accustomed corners, with their chairs titled back against the wall; awaking… once or twice in a forenoon, to bore one another with the several thousandth repetition of old sea-stories, and mouldy jokes,” (Hawthorne, 14). When Hawthorne begins to discuss about the Custom House members, he describes how all they seem to care about simply keeping their jobs, instead of actually doing them. Without Hawthorne’s Custom House introduction, the audience would not have had the important background information on future important details.

2) In all English courses, a student must construct a paper on whatever their teacher instructs them to write about. After the student has completed their paper, the teacher reviews it and makes any necessary changes. This same situation can be related to Hawthorne’s change of Hester Prynne’s story. First, Prynne wrote her story, the way she believed it should be. Then, Hawthorne reread it and altered it, the way he felt it should be written. Hawthorne thought that giving it a fictional essence would only assist in its success. Even though Hawthorne changed Prynne’s story, he made sure that he gave full credibility for the construction and authenticity of the story to Prynne.
When a writer uses someone else’s ideas, they are required to cite their sources. With the changes Hawthorne made, he made sure to give full credit to Prynne. “The main facts of that story are authorized and authenticated by the document of Mr. Surveyor Pue,” (Hawthorne, 32). Since Hawthorne changed Prynne’s story, he made sure to clearly state that he did so in the above quote. “What I contend for is the authenticity of the outline,” (Hawthorne, 32). Hawthorne makes sure to establish the importance of giving due credit to Prynne. . Even though Hawthorne changed Prynne’s story, he made sure that he gave full credibility for the construction and authenticity of the story to Prynne.

3) In order for a story to get published, the story must contain some type of appeal to the audience. Without any appeals, the story would not be worth publishing. Even though a story may seem perfect, there is always room for perfection. When the author finds the scarlet letter and papers around it, he began to read the papers. Albeit the original author of the papers, Hester Prynne, found her literary works to be sufficient for the average audience, the author believed that it needed something extra. By implementing fiction into Prynne’s writing, her story was given more creativity and interest. Without it, the story would lack that excess push towards successful writing.
Fiction gives a story an imagination of its own. When the story contains this creativity, it allows the author to take the audience into a world that one can only venture in books. “I must not be understood as affirming, that, in the dressing up of the tale, and imagining the motives and modes of passion that influenced the characters who figure in it,” (Hawthorne, 32). The author did not change the story just for the sake of changing it. He altered it to make it that much closer to perfection. With the story’s fiction, the author was able to create an imagery world for the audience to experience. If the story were to simply remain strictly informative, without any form of imagery or fiction, then it would not have appealed to such a wide range of audiences and probably would not have evolved into the success it is today.

Anne Bradstreet

“ Most critics consider Anne Bradstreet America’s first authentic poet,” (Jill, 1). Since female poets were not commonly found in the 1600’s, she was viewed as an amazing poet. Her great writing styles helped to revolutionize the way for woman. She opened the doors of acceptance, for all women to enter through. Since Anne Bradstreet had, what seems, like a good life, she had a great background to produce her writings on.
Thomas and Dorthy Dudley gave birth to Anne Dudley, in Norhampton, England, around the year of 1612. At the age of eighteen, she married a man named, Simon Bradstreet. “ In 1630, the Bradstreets and Dudleys came to the New World,” (Jill, 1). Before they found their permanent home in North Andover, Massachusetts, in 1644, they had resided “ in Salem, Boston, Cambridge, and Ipswich,” (Jill, 1). When Simon Bradstreet was executing his duties as “ a judge, legislator, royal councilor, and twice a governor of the colony… Anne Bradstreet became a devoted wife and mother,” (Jill, 1) to her eight children. Reverend John Woodbridge, Anne Bradstreet’s brother-in-law, published some of her poetry, in England, in 1647 (The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography 137-138). Bradstreet created many various types of publications.
“Bradstreet’s first publication is entitled The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, By a Gentlewoman of Those Parts,” (Jill, 2). “Her other publications include: Several Poems, a revision of Several Poems, and The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse,” (Jill, 2). With the case of these poems, they are written in heroic couplets and are in traditional subject matter, (Dictionary of American Biography 577-578). “ Her early work, largely imitative and influenced by that of the sixteenth-century French poet Du Bartas is conventional, dull, and easily forgotten (Webster’s American Biographies 129). She also wrote “ Contemplations”, “ The Flesh and the Spirit”, and “The Author to Her Book.” Bradstreet based many of her literary works on her lifetime experiences.
Since Anne Bradstreet had, what seems, like a good life, she had a great background to produce her writings on. Her literary works made, “ many readers enjoy her subjects and how they were treated,” (Jill, 3). Given that Bradstreet had provided her generation with so much, “her death on September 16, 1672, in North Andover, Massachusetts, was a great loss,” (Jill, 3).

Anne Bradstreet Response

Any type of love poem should contain words of passion, love, emotion, and feeling. With the assistance of these words and phrases, the author will be allowed to more efficiently express any type of loving emotions towards their audience. In Anne Bradstreet’s “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, Bradstreet uses pathos to appeal to her audience’s feelings of love and devotion. Throughout her composition of this poem, she implants various examples of pathos. Without the use of pathos, in her love poem, she would not have been able to explicitly state her excessive love towards her audience.
Pathos is a technique used by many authors to appeal to the audience’s inner and deepest emotions. Bradstreet implements pathos in her love poem to allow her true feelings, for her husband, to be known by the entire world. “ If ever two were one, then surely we,” (Bradstreet, 1). In stating these words, she was describing how her husband’s and her love was the strongest love one could ever find. When Bradstreet said, “ compare with me, ye women, if you can,” (4) she was describing, to her husband, how much she truly believed that she was the only woman to completely fulfill his needs and wants. In her eyes, no other woman could possibly try to attain or perfect the accomplishments Bradstreet overcame to please her husband. “ I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,” (Bradstreet, 5). Since gold was considered a significant and amazing find, she compared her husband’s and her love to it. In doing this, she gave her husband a direct example of how much she loved him. With this example, he would then be able to relate her love for him. Bradstreet said, “ My love is such that rivers cannot quench,” (8). In this quote, Bradstreet gave rivers a form of personification, by stating that they “ cannot quench” (8). Since rivers are considered as strong and powerful, Bradstreet was explaining how this object, though being strong and powerful, could still not withstand the power of her husband’s and her love. “ Thy love is such I can no way repay,” (Bradstreet, 9). In view of the fact that Bradstreet had already established how good of a woman she was to him, she tried not to sound so cocky by explaining how she was only inspired by his love. Without “thy love” (Bradstreet, 9), meaning her husband’s love, she would have not been able to have developed the love she had for him. With the stating of “ the heavens reward thee manifold, I pray,” (Bradstreet, 10) Bradstreet expresses how such a powerful being, as God, has encouraged her husband’s and her love. Since her “ manifold” (Bradstreet, 10) is being rewarded, this means that God is giving a blessing towards her husband’s and her love. “ Then while we live, in love let’s so persevere,” (Bradstreet, 11). Bradstreet is attempting to describe to her husband how she wants their love to continue throughout the rest of their lives. The feelings she receives from their love are too overwhelming for her to simply let go of. Bradstreet said, “ that when we live no more, we may live ever,” (12). Even though her husband and her may be dead, she still wants their love to continue on. With her use of pathos, she expresses her feelings towards her husband.
Without the use of pathos, in her love poem, she would not have been able to explicitly state her excessive love towards her audience. If a love poem does not contain any type of pathos, then the poem cannot be considered a love poem. Pathos is what is used to attain the audience’s emotions. It gives the audience a bird’s – eye view of Bradstreet’s inner, most feelings for her husband. If there is no emotion within the poem, then it could only be considered as a normal poem.

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca had to experience many difficult and strange things in order to survive his expedition. He was placed in, what seemed to him like a completely different world. In order to fit along with the natives, he had to place himself in their world. This meant that he had become accustomed to their customs and traditions. If he did not, then the natives may have become angered and could have killed him. He had to view “their women toil incessantly” (Vaca). Even though he may have wanted to help the women, his assistance would not be considered as good but bad. The women and men were not allowed to come into contact with each other, unless they were spouses. Since he had to go through such a drastic life experience, for his King, this picture reminds me of how he succeeded through this hardship.

When I read the Christopher Columbus story, throughout the entire story, all I continued to think about was how Columbus was trying to justify his cruel actions and mistakes with the audience’s sympathy. If he could attain the audience’s empathy, then he would not have to suffer, emotionally and physically, for his mistreatment of the Indians and neglectfulness to keep control over the new land he stole. I specifically chose this picture because, every time Columbus tried to convince the audience that he was the innocent man within the conflicts, he was in fact the main criminal at hand. Columbus is the one who brutally forced the Indians off their land. He was the one who did not completely ensure the efficient productivity of the new world. When someone receives continuous persecutions, they usually are not coincidental. There usually are logical reasons as support for such prosecutions. Even if there were not any justifying facts to back up these accusations, then Columbus should have been more mature about these problems and dealt with them in a more masculine manner. Instead, he chose to try to justify himself by blaming others and using pathos to try to get the audience’s emotions to lean towards him.

Columbus Response

In order for an author to construct any type of literary work, they must decide how they will get their main idea across. In the case, of the writer, of the Christopher Columbus story, the author chose both pathos and logos. With the combination of both pathos and logos, the author was able to certainly convince the audience that Columbus had to go through long and stressful experiences in his lifetime. Without the use of pathos and logos, the author would not have successfully got their main idea across to the audience.
When the author wrote this story, the author wanted the audience to feel sympathy and respect for Christopher Columbus. Since the author wrote, “ he was forced to return to Spain to clear his name of politically motivated charges made against him by other Europeans in the Indies,” (Paragraph 1) he was trying to have the audience see how Christopher Columbus was being falsely persecuted. If the audience were to then believe that Christopher Columbus was truly being wrongly accused, then the audience would begin to sympathize for Christopher Columbus. Once Christopher Columbus returned, from his third voyage, to Hispaniola, he “ soon found himself under arrest, sent in chains to Spain in 1500 to answer yet more charges,” (Paragraph 1). When the author described how Christopher Columbus was charged with more crimes, he had definitely persuaded the audience into understanding why the author thought Christopher Columbus had gone through difficult situations. “ His last voyage, intended to recoup his tarnished reputation, resulted in a long period of suffering in Panama and shipwreck in Jamaica, and these outer woes were accompanied by nearly delusional periods,” (Paragraph 1). By dramatically stating how Christopher Columbus had to experience many horrible and stress- educing situations, the author used descriptive reasoning for believing in his main idea. Even though the author’s use of pathos would have sufficiently proved the main idea, logos only amplified the process’s efficiency for convincing the audience into accepting the author’s main idea.
Logos helped the author by providing information to back up the credibility of the story. Throughout the story, many dates were placed in the text. Since the dates were written in chronological order, the audience would be able to put an event with an exact date. The audience would be able to create a mental picture of what happened, in history, but when it occurred as well. “ The supposed Journal of his first voyage is actually a summary prepared by the cleric and reformer Bartolomé de los Casas,” (Paragraph 2). By giving a definition for the object the author was writing about; the author was ensuring that the audience would completely comprehend the object’s meaning and significance. If the author did not provide a definition for the word “Journal”, then there could have been a possibility that the audience may have become confused. The author not only used facts but documents to support the main idea. With these documents, there is hard and credible proof to support the author’s main idea. Since the author used logos to support the application of pathos, the main idea had both logic and an emotional appeal to aid in convincing the audience to accept the main idea as true.
Without the use of pathos and logos, the author would not have successfully got their main idea across to the audience. Both forms of writing techniques help the author to appeal to his audience more sufficiently and cleverly. The author not only persuades the trustworthiness of the main idea onto the audience through emotions but also, through logic.

Simile

A willow tree is like a loved dog.