Please read carefully and complete

Please read carefully and complete

Answer these 2 questions separately. They are just for a discussion so be brief and keep it light.

1. Writers like Bradford engaged Hawthorne’s deepest interest. What evidence do you find in the “Custom House Sketch” of that interest? What in the Puritans’ lives and worldview engaged Hawthorne’s attention most deeply? How does he deal with these issues? How does The Scarlet Letter reflect the changing nature of Puritanism in America?

2. In “The Custom-House Sketch,” Hawthorne’s narrator describes neutral territory. Hawthorne says that it is where the real and the imaginary meet. How might one think of the forest operating as neutral territory? What passages support this theory? For what purpose is the notion of neutral territory reinvoked in the text?

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Discussion

Question 1

Writers such as Bradford engaged the most profound interest of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne’s most profound interest was showcasing the hypocrisy that was evident in Salem. The benefit is seen in Young Goodman Brown and other short stories that he authored or wrote.

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