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Hawthorne's My Kinsman, Major Molineux.(literary criticism of Nathaniel Hawthorne)(Critical Essay)

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From: The Explicator
Date: 20010922
Author:Pearce, Colin D.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" is the story of a backwoods lad's "rites of passage" from rural boyhood to urban maturity. In the discussion that follows I shall treat the story as allegorical of the cultural and civilizational shift that had overtaken American life in Hawthorne's lifetime. The protagonist Robin's (1) moving from a rural environment to an urban one is not a simple advance to the good, as the unappealing description of the mob leader and the cruelty of Major Molineux's treatment suggest. The old gentleman's humiliation is repellent, and yet the ...

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