The Custom House

Nathaniel Hawthornes writings of the Custom House really made me wonder why he would  write such a thing to introduce the Scarlet Letter.  He identifies that there is some sort of a purpose to why the narrator is telling us this information becuase he rambles a little bit about why he isn't the type of person to write such autobiographical works, but he chose to anyway.  I find the narrators interest with his families past and his ties to Salem really fascinating.  He doesn't talk about Salem in a fond manner, but at the same time of all places he could have chosen to go and work there he was at the Custom House.  He explains his distaste for the dullness of the life at the Custom House and even his lack of respect for his co-workers.  He points out how dirty and run-down it is there, but he sees them really just sitting around chatting or sleeping. Then I realy do think that he becomes to a certain fondness of aspects of their different personalities.  He notices his interests in the things they speak about.  He says that they have this ability to stay in the mundane present talking about dinner or politics.  It is really clear that he uses politics to tintroduce this run-down town of Salem that has clearly seen better days and he kind of reflects upon that and the peoples loyalty to a country that maybe is supposed to protect them from that. Then the narrator stumbles upon this letter in the attic of a custom house of all places.  Then he creates this story off of writings by Jonathon Pue. I think there is significance in the fact that the narrartor did not pull the story out of thin air but looked at the story or manuscript and was able to visualize this fictional account of Hester Prynne.