Scarlet Letter

1 Pages 252 Words

Hawthorne’s introduction to the Scarlet Letter explains his experience(s) in his native
town of Salem. He specifies what his goal for the reader is going to be. Spending a lot of his time
at the Custom-House (a governmental building in Salem) he describes the atmosphere and
diversities of the people who walk up those granite steps. His reason for creating the Custom-
House short novel was to introduce a group of short works as well as the long story which was
not yet completed, however, his publisher James Fields encouraged Hawthorne to let “The Scarlet
Letter” stand alone.
In his native town of Salem, he describes the Custom-House as a sort of old, unattractive
building. He elaborates the physical sense of the buildings exterior with the American flag that
hangs vertically and the banner of the republic on the roof which he describes as it “floats or
droops, in breeze or calm.” But he gives an in-depth description of the bald eagle that hangs
proudly over the entrance of the building. He states “......to warn all citizens, careful of their
safety, against intruding on the premises which she overshadows with her wings: nevertheless,
vixenly as she looks, many people are seeking, at this very moment, to shelter themselves under
the wing of the federal eagle.”
The many different people that came to the Custom-House as Hawthorne exclaims “made
it a stirring scene.” as many as three to four vessels would arrive at a time usually from Africa or
South America. They would come into the Custom-House tired and exhausted from long days on their voyages at sea....