Andrew Mr. Wing English III, Period 4 November 23, 1999 Breaking out of Prison Hawthorne’s view on life is wrong. He says that in the depths of human nature there is an inner world in which every human being is alone. Hawthorne’s background and they way he lived his life gave him this dark view on life. His father and grandfather did things that he did not like and Hawthorne tried to redeem the bad things they did and when he couldn’t he went into seclusion and explored his own heart. Every person is not the same as Hawthorne; I believe that with certain people their heart could be their prison but not the average person.
People are not caged by their heart, their heart shows what kind of person they are. It is similar to Emerson’s “golden possibility,” Hawthorne did not meet his golden possibility and this is why he looks on things so darkly. He doesn’t try to look at the good things in life, he tries to see what is wrong with people and explain why. He only looked at himself though and he did not have much to be happy for and this is why he felt like he was in a prison.
Most people if they look inside themselves they are happy and do not dwell on such things like Hawthorne does. A person’s cage is not their heart, their heart is something that lets them be free and go on about a normal day with a happy countenance on their face. Your own heart could be your worst prison but every human being is not in that prison like Hawthorne was. Hawthorne is right that your heart is the worst prison a person could be in but everyone is that same situation. Hawthorne shouldn’t generalize so much, he was only looking at himself and not the world around him. He was too self-centered in his writings and quotes, he should have looked at other people and saw how they lived.
The Term Paper on Heart of Darkness vs Things Fall Apart
“Heart of Darkness” and “Things Fall Apart” show a variety of ways of depicting Africa in literature. In “Heart of Darkness”, Joseph Conrad shows the continent of Africa through the stereotypical perspective of the European sailors, who had a tendency to depict the natives of the land as savages, and in response to that matter, Chinua Achebe wrote “Things Fall Apart” through the non-stereotypical ...
Then he would see a world of bright colors and fun filled life, he could have lived life to the maximum but he chose to look at the dark side of things and keep living inside his prison instead of changing his life. Hawthorne was correct in his view of his own life but incorrect is his assumptions of other people’s lives. He chose to live inside that prison instead of breaking out and living life to the maximum. I think that if you are in a prison it is possible to break out, you can always find a way to change things from the normal routine, all a person has to do is try.
