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Literary Devices
Definition of Allegory
An allegory is a work that conveys a hidden meaning—usually moral, spiritual, or political—through the use of symbolic characters and events. The story of "The Tortoise and The Hare" is... read full definition
An allegory is a work that conveys a hidden meaning—usually moral, spiritual, or political—through the use of symbolic characters and events. The story of "The... read full definition
An allegory is a work that conveys a hidden meaning—usually moral, spiritual, or political—through the use of symbolic characters and... read full definition
Chapter 1: The Old Pyncheon Family
Explanation and Analysis—Stolen Land:
Although the central property dispute in the book is between the Pyncheon family and the Maule family, this property dispute also functions as an allegory for colonial theft of land from American Indian people. The Pyncheons stand in for white colonists (which they are), but the Maules stand in for American Indians (which they are not, at least explicitly). Hawthorne makes a few references to the fact that all of the disputed land was first stolen from Indigenous inhabitants. For example, in Chapter 1, Hawthorne describes the territory in Maine to which the Pyncheons have lost the deed:
[T]he territory was partly regranted to more favored individuals, and partly cleared and occupied by actual settlers. These last, if they ever heard of the Pyncheon title, would have laughed at the idea of any man’s asserting a right—on the strength of moldy parchments, signed with the faded autographs of governors and legislators long dead and forgotten—to the lands which they or their fathers had wrested from the wild hand of nature by their own sturdy toil.
This passage establishes why it is important for the Pyncheons to present the deed to the land in Maine: the settlers currently living there will never believe that the land belongs to a family that has never lived and worked there. Even with the deed, the claim will be dubious. And yet the reason the white settlers rivaling the Pyncheons for the territory in Maine believe in their ownership of the land is that they have "wrested [it] from the wild hand of nature by their own sturdy toil." The story they are telling themselves is that the land belonged to "nature" until they "toiled" to make it theirs. This story in itself is a fiction that ignores the rights of American Indians, but it is a fiction with legal and philosophical precedent. The idea that land becomes a person's property when they perform labor on that land is rooted in the writing of the 17th-century philosopher John Locke. Many laws and customs in early America (and the modern United States) were based on Locke's writing, and this notion of property is no different. The colonists have a reason for believing that the land belongs to them more than it belongs to the Pyncheons.
Although "the wild hand of nature" takes the place of any previous owners of the land in this passage in Chapter 1, Hawthorne is nonetheless aware that the situation is more complicated than even these colonists would like to believe. In Chapter 21, Holgrave finally reveals the deed to the land:
Holgrave opened it, and displayed an ancient deed, signed with the hieroglyphics of several Indian sagamores, and conveying to Colonel Pyncheon and his heirs, forever, a vast extent of territory at the eastward.
The deed reveals that property can be claimed not only through labor on the land in question, but also through the "ancient" and somewhat mystical word of "Indian sagamores." This language is racist and plays into the notion that American Indians belong to antiquity rather than the present, but the passage betrays Hawthorne's awareness that American Indians have a competing claim to all North American land. The curse Maule places on the House of the Seven Gables stands in for the idea that all North American land is haunted by the sins of colonists who have stolen it.
Related Themes:
Chapter 21: The Departure
Explanation and Analysis—Stolen Land:
Although the central property dispute in the book is between the Pyncheon family and the Maule family, this property dispute also functions as an allegory for colonial theft of land from American Indian people. The Pyncheons stand in for white colonists (which they are), but the Maules stand in for American Indians (which they are not, at least explicitly). Hawthorne makes a few references to the fact that all of the disputed land was first stolen from Indigenous inhabitants. For example, in Chapter 1, Hawthorne describes the territory in Maine to which the Pyncheons have lost the deed:
[T]he territory was partly regranted to more favored individuals, and partly cleared and occupied by actual settlers. These last, if they ever heard of the Pyncheon title, would have laughed at the idea of any man’s asserting a right—on the strength of moldy parchments, signed with the faded autographs of governors and legislators long dead and forgotten—to the lands which they or their fathers had wrested from the wild hand of nature by their own sturdy toil.
This passage establishes why it is important for the Pyncheons to present the deed to the land in Maine: the settlers currently living there will never believe that the land belongs to a family that has never lived and worked there. Even with the deed, the claim will be dubious. And yet the reason the white settlers rivaling the Pyncheons for the territory in Maine believe in their ownership of the land is that they have "wrested [it] from the wild hand of nature by their own sturdy toil." The story they are telling themselves is that the land belonged to "nature" until they "toiled" to make it theirs. This story in itself is a fiction that ignores the rights of American Indians, but it is a fiction with legal and philosophical precedent. The idea that land becomes a person's property when they perform labor on that land is rooted in the writing of the 17th-century philosopher John Locke. Many laws and customs in early America (and the modern United States) were based on Locke's writing, and this notion of property is no different. The colonists have a reason for believing that the land belongs to them more than it belongs to the Pyncheons.
Although "the wild hand of nature" takes the place of any previous owners of the land in this passage in Chapter 1, Hawthorne is nonetheless aware that the situation is more complicated than even these colonists would like to believe. In Chapter 21, Holgrave finally reveals the deed to the land:
Holgrave opened it, and displayed an ancient deed, signed with the hieroglyphics of several Indian sagamores, and conveying to Colonel Pyncheon and his heirs, forever, a vast extent of territory at the eastward.
The deed reveals that property can be claimed not only through labor on the land in question, but also through the "ancient" and somewhat mystical word of "Indian sagamores." This language is racist and plays into the notion that American Indians belong to antiquity rather than the present, but the passage betrays Hawthorne's awareness that American Indians have a competing claim to all North American land. The curse Maule places on the House of the Seven Gables stands in for the idea that all North American land is haunted by the sins of colonists who have stolen it.
Related Themes:
