Journal Entry 12/21/2015: The House of the Seven Gables

"Still, there will be a connection with the long past - a reference to forgotten events and personages, and to manners, feelings, and opinions almost wholly obsolete - which, if adequately translated to the reader, would serve to illustrate how much of old material goes to make up the freshest novelty of human life. Hence, too, might be drawn a weighty lesson from the little-regarded truth that the act of the passing generation is the germ which may and must produce good or evil fruit in a far-distant time; that together with the seed of the merely temporary crop, which mortals term expediency, they inevidently sow the acorns of a more enduring growth, which may darkly overshadow their posterity" (Hawthorne 2).

     Nathaniel Hawthorne is an author well-worthy of praise for his wisdom in crafting language, as shown in the passage above. Hawthorne has a distinct style of crafting long, weighty sentences containing metaphorical cannonballs of meaning. This passage occurs within the first few pages of the novel, in a way signifying that this style of writing is what the reader is going to experience throughout the novel. The reader is about to witness but a tale of tragedy told in the language of an educated philosopher.
     The reader encounters this passage in the beginning chapter, when the narrator begins to explain the purpose of his story to the reader. The narrator even addresses the reader, saying that if the reader "adequately" translates his words right, he should draw a lesson out of this story. This goes on to reveal the tone, which is almost advisory, like the introduction to a Shakespearean tragedy or a metaphorical parable. Hawthorne doesn't subject us to his traditional iceberg style (more beneath than visible) in content, but more in form, as one could get lost in Hawthorne's complex use of syntax. Hawthorne both captures and confuses the reader with his philosophical writing style, as probably intended.

Word Count: 200