This story of Nathaniel Hawthorne's My Kinsman, Major Molineux, is about an eighteen-year-old man named Robin who took a ferry ride to the Massachusetts Bay to find Major Molineux. Molineux was a part of Robin's childhood and he wanted to see him again while he settled in the new town. It took him a while to get to Molineux though because the town is big, and he had to walk through several streets. First he traveled to a barber shop to see if Molineux was at that location. None of the citizens knew where he was, so he kept walking the streets. He noticed a little inn because there was a big celebration going on inside, so he walked inside the building and asked one of the workers if they know Molinexu. They didn't know him either. He kept walking around the narrow street until he saw a nice woman at a house. She told him the Molineux resided there, but he was gone. Finally Robin stopped by a church and asked a homeless man on a pillar if he knew Molineux. He told Robin to just sit and watch him walk by the street. Robin sat for a while and finally noticed Molineux, looking old and happy partying with the rest of the citizens of the town. Robin wanted to go back to the ferry, and the homeless man told him to stay in town for a few days.
I am kind of confused with the plot. Why did he start looking for Molineux? What was the significance of having him in his life? Was he like a father to Robin? What happened with the skirt at the barber shop? What happened with Molineux at the end of the story? Was he happy, or was he hated by the townspeople? I did not like this story because I couldn't understand the language. I understood part of the story when he came looking for Molineux, but when he was being descriptive of a building or a person I got really confused. I also did not like it because what was the point in traveling the distance to see the man if you're not going to talk to him? I do like the time period of the story because it was set in the early 1800's, and it's around the time of early America. Did citizens actually vote for governors and other political positions, because in the beginning of the story, it said that New England picked their governor by just picking one randomly....I think? I am very confused with the beginning of the story as well? What is happening, and why did people look at Robin as if he were at least of some royality?
I hope most of this was addressed in class today and it is clearer now.
ReplyDeleteRomanticism is a bit difficult because it retains the verbosity of the age of reason writings and adds subtle symbolism, allegory, and generally needs to be interpreted more; it was bad enough when they were just long and wordy. But it should get better as we move closer to the 20th century! :)