The Scarlet Letter: Study Guide and Angry Rant

1. There are three different reasons why the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the Custom House. He tells in the first two pages, what the reasons were and why he wrote them. The first reason he gave is because during the last time he wrote an autobiography about his dismal and boring life someone actually took the time to read it, so he thought to again seize the opportunity and write about his drawn out, incredibly dull time at the Custom House. His reason to seize this opportunity, he claims, was he wanted to write for the people who were like him, and therefore could understand him. His next reason for writing this 44-page sleeping pill was that he wanted to establish a relationship with the audience. This within itself makes no sense; I ask how are you to establish a relationship with anyone by annoying them and putting them to sleep!!!
His last and final reason for writing the introductory, which he claims is the real reason, was to establish his credibility as an editor and narrator, appeal to ethos. Also to let everyone who took the time to read this drivel of an introductory, that this is a story based on facts that he happened to find and how he found them.
2. Hawthorne admits to making two changes to the story that'll ultimately have an impact on the whole story. He first admits to adding a few details to give a small representation of some type of life that wasn't in the diary. Hawthorne doesn't go into detail about what exactly it is, but he says that it follows the story line and moves along with the characters involved in the story. He also admits to adding a character to the cast of the diary. He also doesn't go into detail about who the character is or what role the character plays.
3. These changes can have a lot of different impacts on the story. With the adding of details and a character that wasn't there to begin with, you're changing the whole story itself. You're adding in scenes that never took place, conversations that didn't happen, events that never took place, adding people to scenes that weren't there to begin with, the whole storyline. Basically these changes are falsifying the story in some areas and defeating the purpose of what the introductory was for, which was to establish Hawthorne's credibility. With him adding things and changing the story, how are we to believe that he didn’t add more than he said he did, or took some things out. That then opens up the question did he read everything right and add all the correct details. Therefore these changes have ruined the credibility of the author, the credibility of the story, and have overall made the whole story false, in some areas.