Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the many American writes who deliberately sought to create an American literature, a literature (to borrow F.O Matthiessen's phrase) that would provide America with a literature commensurate with the country's political opportunity. To accomplish this, Hawthorne immersed himself in American literature and history, from the times of his Puritan ancestors to his own times, the mid-nineteenth century. Hawthorne loved America, respected its ideal of liberty, and admired what it had accomplished. But he was also very uncertain about America.
He was troubled by the history of persecution that accompanied its tradition of freedom, but he also was very suspicious of the consequences of unfettered liberty. He believed in democracy, the rule of the people, but he also knew that people often had very questionable motives for what they did. He accepted the capitalist system, but he also felt that when a society was too immersed of the world, it suffered spiritually. Both Hawthorne's intimate engagement with American literature and history and his ambivalence about American society and values may be seen in the stories and novels he wrote. In this essay, I will demonstrate how Hawthorne seems to discuss the state of the individual's soul and identity regarding society with diverse American writers from different periods, ranging from The New-England Puritans, through The Enlightenment and Revolution, and ends with The American Renaissance.