The General that the narrator talks about in “The Custom House” holds some characteristics that we have seen to be valued by transcendentalists such as Emerson and Thoreau. He is “remote” and has appreciation for nature or “the floral tribe” (20). The narrator thinks that perhaps the General lives a more “real life inside his thoughts” (20). However, the narrator includes this man as part of the Custom House that stifles his creativity and individuality. Can you point to a specific passage(s) that explain why the narrator does not think the General is a true spiritual thinker? What differentiates between the General and the narrator?
Also, what do you believe is the significance that this story took place in a custom house rather than another place in Salem (besides the fact that Hawthorne worked there)? Why would a custom house be particularly ill adapted “to the delicate harvest of fancy and sensibility” (28)? How does this connect to the General and the narrator and how they fit the roles of transcendentalism?
You do not have to address all of these things.
10 comments:
The narrator does not think the General is a true spiritual thinker as of the thinkers of Transcendentalism because of his incapability to let him guard down. Emerson and Thoreau, the models of Transcendentalist living, exposed themselves to the fullest, participating in activities that they loved and to make themselves happy. The General sits "beside the fireplace...quiet and almost slumberous" (20). One of the most prominent arguments Thoreau makes is the necessity of wakefullness. If the General is drifting and nearly awake, his intellectual abilities are not being used. If he is thinking of "The evolutions of the parade; the tumult of hte battle; the flourish of old, heroic music, heard thirty years before" the General is not living in the moment and experiencing life-for life occurs presently, not in the nostalgic memories of the past (20). Hawthorne also tells how the General is "as mujch out of place as an old sword" in the Custom-House. Isn't the Transcendental lifestyle supposed to occur in the a favorable place? If the General "showed still a bright gleam" of life, why is he wasting his days "among the inkstands, paper-folders, and mahogany rulers" when he is most interested in nature? (20-21). The notes made by Hawthorne and the General's displacement in the Custom-House prove that he is not a true spiritual thinker.
Despite the fact that the narrator perhaps believes that the General lives more of a "real life inside his thoughts," he also uses specific examples to show how the General is not in fact a true transcendentalist thinker.
One thing that Thoreau emphasized in his writings about Transcendentalism was the importance of being alive. Thoreau believed that one must be completely awake in order to fulfill their intellectual capacities to think clearly and deliberately. However, Hawthorne discusses how the General was "fond of standing at a distance, and watching his quiet and almost slumberous countenance"(20). The General is evidently contradicting one of the main aspects of Thoreau's classification of Transcendentalism, that being the importance of being awake and lively. In characterizing men who enjoy sleeping over being awake, he says, "If they had not been overcome with drowsiness they would have performed something"(Thoreau 775). The General very obviously fits in well with Emerson's classification of one who has not "performed something"(775).
Hawthorne discusses how, despite the fact that the General had appreciation for nature and the "floral tribe"(20), he was not in fact a true transcendentalist thinker and was incapable of truly thinking originally and through transcendentalist ideals.
The significance that this story took place in the custom house in Salem, rather than some other trivial setting in Massachusetts is because of the almost amusing bond between Hawthorne and the old men who worked in the custom house.
Hawthorne's description of the old men in their "jollity of age...much in common with the mirth of children" seems to suggest a point that we stressed in our class discussion of Emerson (16). If a man (or woman, but for this time period the occupations of women were absent) were to completely drop a methodical life with a pleasant job and good income, to go live in the woods harmoniously with nature, he would be living passionately. *Keeping in mind that this ficticious man decided to go live in the woods not because he was an extremist, but because it is what he always desired to do and being in a communion with nature was what made his life fervent* The men that Hawthorne worked with seemed to have rather, for lack of a better term, boring occupations. These men were "ancient sea-captains...drifted into the quiet nook" of the Custom House to take up an occupation (14). Although the word 'drifted' doesn't connote that they went to the Custom House because they desired to be tax collecters, the fact that they were "superior to the sluggish and dependent mode of life" made them incredible examples of Hawthorne's philosophies being at such great ages (17). The setting of the Custom House is more or less epitomizing Hawthorne's principles-humans in their natural states.
You guys have some interesting ideas I had not thought of! The General does contradict ideas Thoreau's ideas of being truly awake. I really like Claire's ideas about the custom house men's behaviors as being an example of human nature becasue the narrator directly says that he went to the custom house to get away from the nature the transcendetalists were observing and discover "human nature" which turns out to be pretty detrimental to his writing abilities for a time (22)
But I also would like to redirect everyone because no one has really touched upon the idea I was thinking of. Can anyone find why the general does not fit in with transcendentalist views of self-reliance? And with the custom house, try looking at the word "custom" and how it applies.
I thought that the irony of the Custom House as the place where Hawthorne discovered The Scarlet Letter was really interesting. The Scarlet Letter represents Hawthorne's masterpiece of transcendentalist writing, encompassing all of his ideas about individuality. Yet, this source of individualism is found in the collective offices of the government. A custom house is a government building in which filing paperwork and collecting taxes are the two major tasks of the workers. Working there almost ensures a repetitive and boring job.
I feel like Thoreau is somewhat nostalgic about the General. He was a man of over eighty years, and Thoreau describes him as a "brave old General", who experienced "the tumult of battle" and heard "heroic music...thirty years before". The General represents the life of a man after physical strength and energy has disappeared. The General is "out of place as an old sword - now rusty" and the his real life only occurs "inside his thoughts".
The purpose of describing the General was to illustrate the life of a man who no longer has the strength to live in the same heroic manner he once did. It is a frightening concept for Thoreau.
I think that it is significant that the setting is the Custom-House because it is where Hawthorne gets the inspiration to write The Scarlet Letter. And while I have not read the book, I know that it takes place during colonial America, during the time where the Custom-House would have been active and perhaps a vital part of society because it was the link to the King.
I also think that the name itself is import. It is a "Custom" House- which means that it is literaly named after what makes up society-customs. In class, when we talked about Thoreau and Emerson who mentioned the idea of society "seeming [so] fast" at the cost of the individual being "deadly slow" (778). Thus, if the Custom House is, in a sense, an extension of society, then it makes sense Hawthorne calles it "this wretched numbness [that] held possession of me" (28). The Custom-House became a restraint for Hawthorne's ability as an individual keeping him from his "intellectual forge" (28).
Chelsea touched on what I was thinking of the custom house. Not only does is it have strong government ties with the American eagle literally perched upon the top, watching over those who enter, it actually uses the word custom in its name. This building is full of old men, past their prime in a port that is no longer very busy. It is still run in an almost imitaion of the past according to tradition,custom, society. No wonder this is such a creatively opressive place to be. Now what do you guys think about the general and self-reliance?
I also like Mike's comments about the irony of the inspiration for this transcendental masterpiece coming from this government run, tradition-adhering place.
It is very ironic that Hawethorne has the story take place in the "Custom House." The whole point of transcendentalism was to break away from customs and society. Custom houses were used in governments as a gathering place for the people, or society. Instead of having his character escape society, Hawthorne has them embrace it. This idea completely contradicted the idea of Transcendentalism and yet he was considered a great Transcendentalist writer. It is interesting though that he describes the house as ""this wretched numbness [that] held possession of me" (28). This is himusing technoque to show us how society has "taken possesion" of us. This is important because he brings this idea of society being bad without actually coming out and saying it. He uses the "Custom House" as a symbol.
As me talked about today in class, although it can sound like it at times men like Thoreau don't want us to disconnect ourselves from society and social gatherings if we feel they are necessary. If we did that we would just be living by what those philosophers did, and it's not what they would have wanted. So when the narrator says, "He seemed away from us, although we saw him but a few yards off..." (20), it seems as though Hawthorne is trying to imply the general puts off an appearance of being a spiritual thinker publicly, as to gain recognition of being one. Moving onto the story's location of a custom house, the irony of the setting featuring supposedly "transcendental" characters is that a custom house deals with goods. The idea of an office building being around for the sole purpose of taking care of paperwork dealing with imports and exports is an idea a so called "spiritual thinker" would look down upon seeing it as too materialistic.
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