Nathanial+Hawthorne

=Nathanial Hawthorne= (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864)

**Background**
== Hawthorne was a 19th century American novelist as well as a short story writer. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts into the sixth generation of his Salem family. Many of his ancestors were judges, businessmen, and seamen but they all practice the very strict and disciplined religion of [|Puritanism]. This affected his imagination as well as his writing career. There was a time in his life when he was injured and very immobile, but it was during this time that he discovered that he had an extraordinary taste for thinking and reading, which was possibly when his love for writing began. ==

**Hawthorne’s Style**
Hawthorne become one of the greatest writers of his time because he moved away from formalism and began to discover the ideas of individual responsibility. He also realized and wrote about the importance of creative expression and the relationship between humans and nature. Many of his earlier stories were written anonymously in gift books and various magazines. Most of Hawthorne's works are considered romanticism, and more specifically, [|dark romanticism], which are cautionary tales that express that sin, evil, and guilt are the natural qualities that humans possess. The inspiration for many of his works came from Puritan ideals, in which he would incorporate romance with symbolism and psychological themes. Some of his later works implicated his negative view of the[| Transcendentalism movement].

**Themes throughout his many of his works**

 * Alienation
 * Initiation
 * Problem of Guilt
 * Pride
 * Puritan New England
 * Italian Background
 * Allegory
 * Individual vs Society

The American Dream in "The Artist of the Beautiful"
In this story, Hawthorne tells of the journey and achievements of a watchmaker by the name of Owen Warland. He feels that he has no use for practicality and spends a great deal of time trying to understand the idea of beauty. Throughout Owen's life there were two "religions" portrayed, the religion of the artistic and the religion of the practical world. He believes in beauty but lives in a world where people dwell in comfort; he was often discouraged by this, as well as his contact with the world. The American Dream can be seen as something different for each person, but overall it is the goal of succeeding and pursuing your own dreams so that you may provide for yourself and your family. This is what Owen is striving for when he worked on his mechanisms.

The blacksmith in this story says that it is better to earn a living doing something that relies on strength and reality. He also says that watchmakers are wasting their lives thinking about wheels and looking at tiny mechanisms all day. I think the blacksmith has a skewed vision of what the American Dream should be and how you achieve it. In my opinion, each and every individual should find something that they love to do and something that is going to provide them with the essentials they need to survive, even if that means they don't have an expensive car or a mansion, but as long as they have a place to live, a method of transportation and they are pursuing a career and lifestyle they love, then nothing else matters.

This story also presents the option of happiness verses practicality. Meaning, each person has his or her own choice as to whether they want to have a career and lifestyle that makes them happy or a lifestyle that they are satisfied with that may be more practical for them. For example, the blacksmith in this story found it more satisfying to do the job that he loved and thought of as a better choice than many other jobs. Many Americans strive to have careers that they find themselves enjoying, as well as raises their social status to the level at which they are satisfied. The American Dream doesn't have to be the same for every person because, just like in this story, not everyone is going to have the same goals. In this story, the watchmaker and the blacksmith both had different views of what they viewed as the American Dream, which is why they were both satisfied with their career choice.