Custom House

1. What is the primary purpose for the Custom House introduction? The purpose for the Custom House introduction was to be somewhat of an autobiography by Hawthorne. He explained key points in his life from his own point of view, which happened to be very unique. He compared experiences in his life to many other things, making him seem as if he had an exciting and diverse life.

2. What significant change does Hawthorne admit to making in telling the story contained in the diary? Hawthorne dresses up the tale a lot, but the significant change is in the characters. He added motives that would better explain what they did and why they did it, and he made the narrative into a story. He reveals his own perspective through the character because he was not in the time which the story happened. Instead of making it a narrative, he decided to make it a story with characters a reader can somewhat relate to.

3.What potential impact will this change have on the story? It would be more interesting, because people will want to know what happens to the characters in the end. If it were not written this way, the story would seem to impersonal and many potential readers would not want to read it.