In my College Prep class, we're required to write blogs about a "college bound book" and I chose to read The Scarlet Letter. We're entitled to do a blog every few weeks on the book that we're reading so for the first blog, I will be discussing the introduction. Feel free to leave comments if you wish, or to let me know if you also have read or are currently reading the same book as me.


The Introduction: The Custom House

The introduction starts out with a nameless narrator, who connects in a few ways with the book’s author and takes the position of “chief executive officer” of the Salem Custom House. The narrator finds the place to be run down and shabby, positioned on a roofing harbor in a half –finished building. Most of the fellow workers of this customhouse hold a lifetime commitment to their work, which are secured by family connections. Keep in mind that these are elderly people and will often repeat the same stories over and over. The narrator describes them as “incompetent and innocuously corrupt”.

The narrator amuses himself daily by finding things to do since not many boats come to the Salem Custom House. On one rainy afternoon, he discovered some papers on the second floor of the building, which is unoccupied. Looking through the papers he finds he notices a manuscript that is bundled with a scarlet, gold-embroidered piece of cloth in the shape of the letter “A.” He examines it closely, holds it briefly to his chest, but he drops it because it seems to burn him. 

He then proceeds to read the manuscript and notices that it is the work of Jonathan Pue, who was a custom surveyor one hundred years before himself.

The narrator starts to think and considers writing about the manuscript making it as real and accurate as possible but also putting his own touches within the work as well. Soon a new president is elected and the narrator looses his job. Because of loosing his job, he settles down in his parlor and starts to write the beginning of The Scarlet Letter

Analyzing

The way that the narrator views the people, makes me think that he's extremely judgmental. And I don't exactly understand why he's so secretive about his identity either. He seems ashamed of himself, like he's so afraid to be himself. Hes always thinking about what the others are doing and not what he wants to do. 
What he's doing reminds me of all the kids that you see in junior high or middle school trying  to find a way to fit in, being as fake as they need to. Its not until later that they realize that they haven't been themselves. I wonder if thats what he's doing.