In the “Scarlet Letter”, Nathaniel Hawthorne narrates his life as a surveyor in the custom house. “A Custom House is a governmental building situated near a port or a wharf. All sailors, sea captains, merchants, and sea traders are required to report directly to the Custom when they land to pay tax on their imported goods.” In his narration he uses many rhetorical strategies such as metaphor, irony, and juxtaposition, to create a vivid and clear picture of his life.
The Custom House in itself is very ironic. It talks about the process it took Hawthorne to write “The Scarlet Letter”. In his narration he describes how hard it was for him to put his great idea on paper. How difficult it was to translate his thoughts into a well put together novel. …show more content…
“It is anything but agreeable to be haunted by the suspicion that one’s intellect is dwindling away.” He mocks everyday life as he begins thinking about writing once more. He makes an analogy to the dwindling phial that is emitting and evaporating. He is saying that as the phial is leaking so is his passion and intrigue for writing. Like the phial, his intellect is dying and so is his literature.
During his stay at the Custom House, Hawthorne is elected in office and starts to become the person he dreads the most. He begins to conform to whoever wins, the party, just to gain security in his job. He begins to join the crowd or corruption, and of having an easy life. He believes you need self worth in your job because you won’t be able to get back on the horse when you fall off. He is using both a metaphor and irony.
Hawthorne notes that the Republicans like to chop everyone’s head, sparing the occasional few. This metaphor is ironic in the sense that he believes he would be better than them, but once he gets a chance he becomes them, and his own head falls off.
Everything is a recollection, Hawthorne isn’t holding a grudge t the men who got him kicked out for they are just