The Sense of “Homeless” in the Early Short Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Abstract

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’ s early literary works, “homelessness” was an important concept. It was not only reflected in the conflictions between the individuals and their house and clans, but also in Hawthorne’ s unique understanding of the concept of “home”, which closely combined with various other concepts such as “Family” and “Homeland”. Therefore, the sense of “homeless” cannot be simply understood as people leaving their family and homeland in space, or people losing their house in their real life, but also should be considered from the angle of religion, philosophy and the early American history. This article is based on complicated descriptions and representations of the sense of “homelessness” in Hawthorne’ s early short works, and intends to show that “homelessness” is not only related to personal destiny and life choice, but also showed the ubiquity of people’s “Being”, the core concepts of understanding Hawthorne’ s creation.