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.