The Custom House

1) In most books the author usually gives an introduction. Its purpose is to show the readers how everything began or it gives you a brief history of the story. Most of the time it’s like a preview into what will happen in the book or what has already happened. An introduction can be defined as a preliminary part, as of a book, musical composition, or the like, leading up to the main part (dictionary.com). If you read the entire Custom House introduction you find that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s purpose for writing the introduction was to inform the reader of how he got the idea to write the book. He also, wanted you to get an idea of the setting and time period of the book.

The Custom House was a very detailed explanation of how it all started. However, it was also very confusing. Hawthorne describes his hometown, in Salem, Massachusetts, and how it has changed over the years. He also writes about the people who want to destroy it. You find out that a Custom House is a government office where customs duties are levied on imports and exports and where vessels are entered or cleared (dictionary.com). He describes the Custom House writing about how it used to be a very busy port. However, its not that way any more since the ships go to New York or Boston to sell their goods.


2) The significant change that Nathaniel Hawthorne admitted to making was that he
changed Hester Prynne’s story around. She had written the story the way she felt it needed to be written. When Hawthorne read it he saw felt it should be written a different way so he changed it to fit the way that he knows how. It was written in a fictional manner because that is the way he had been writing since he became a surveyor. Even though the story wouldn’t tell exactly what happened it would be interesting to the readers.

Even though he changed the story around Prynne still got credit for originally writing the story. He shows this when he says “… the main facts of the story are authorized and authenticated…” (Hawthorne 32). However, he also takes credit for some part of the book too. “… I have allowed myself, as to such points, nearly altogether as much license as if the facts had been entirely of my own invention.” (Hawthorne 32). This may mean that he feels he has the authority to alter the story since he’s the one that found it. He’s letting his readers know that he didn’t just copy everything from the diary. He did think of some things himself.


3) Some stories when changed are made better despite what some people think.
Others were better off left the way they were. In Hawthorne’s case he made the story more interesting. He wanted to give her story a more interesting story line. If he hadn’t done this his book probably wouldn’t have been as successful as it is now. He changed it for the better because he felt more people would be interested in how he wrote it than how it actually happened.

The story will be more interesting the way he wrote it because it seems like it was more exciting than it actually was. It makes more readers want to read it because it will leave room for more speculation and imagination. Almost everyone likes a juicy story so if he had left it the way it was people would be uninterested in the story and wouldn’t want to read it. However because of the change people want to read the story and find out what happens next. As with all fictional stories people want to be kept hanging on the edge of their seat. They want to guess what will happen next and what happened after everything was settled.