. the house of the seven gables .

The House of the Seven Gables had such a vague background to me, but while researching information on it and on other things, I was hit with a bunch of really cool information! At first I had first heard of The House of the Seven Gables because we were just reading about it in American Lit., which was written by Nathanial Hawthorne. This book was based on the actual house of the seven gables in Salem, Massachusetts. Nathaniel Hawthorne used to live in Salem, by the actual house. Another really cool fact is that his story was derived from his own family history on the legend of a curse pronounced on Hawthorne's own family by a woman, who was sentenced to death during the Salem witchcraft trials.

This is very much like how Colonel Pyncheon charged Matthew Maule with witchcraft because of him wanting to take over his land. It was Hawthorne, also, who came from a long ancestry of puritans. Puritans were the ones that began the witch trials. They were such a God-fearing people and had strict ways of living so that they can make it to heaven, that they were wanted to get rid of everyone that would upset the strict religious balance. Another motive might have been greed. Like with Colonel Pyncheon wanting the land of Matthew Maule to gain more to his wealth.

They all tie into together, through Nathanial Hawthorne. See, Hawthorne wrote the HSG and he also lived in or near the house itself in Salem. Hawthorne’s background included a grandfather, John Hawthorne, was a judge in the Salem witch trials. Also, how Hawthorne came from a long line of ancestral Puritans.

The second part of this is how the Puritans still have some influence on how we love our lives today. One thing can be some of our laws. Puritans were a strict people that lived by the word of God and these days a few things are still followed. One thing is that homosexuality is not allowed and we see this in how gay people are treated. In California, there is an actual banning gay marriage and people look down on it. Also many people follow the ten commandments but maybe not the full extent that they did. Like thou shalt not kill, or honor thy mother and thy father. People still follow them but don’t take it to the next level!