Treasure Hunt in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Peter Goldthwaite’s Treasure”

Year 2004, Issue: 19, 35 - 46, 01.04.2004

Manoli Lopez Ramirez

Abstract

In “Peter Goldthwaite’s Treasure” Hawthorne deals with the American Dream as an intrinsic part of the American experience. Peter is the lonely individual who confronts the world dreaming. Hawthorne’s vision of the American Dream is rooted in his Puritan conception of the man and the world. His Calvinist vision of mankind gives a dramatic aspect to Peter’s dreams. Hawthorne thought that man’s sinful condition made impossible an innocent and simplistic vision of the American Dream. According to Heather O'Toole, Hawthorne believed “that pure evil is at the core of every individual, keeping everyone from any genuine good” O’Toole . Thus Hawthorne sees the inevitable doubleness of man’s experience and dreams in the new world at once tragic and hopeful.

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