[Mr.Menard] First Assignment (02.23.2012) ! :)

<Things to consider for the revision>

1.     Organize the last paragraph more concisely.

2.     Explain the relationship between my personal experience and the main idea of the story.

3.     Specify the difference between this story and other dark romantic stories.

<Revision>

Generally, it has been told that Dark Romantic stories describe individuals as the center of sinfulness and self-destruction. Human beings are not often said to be inherently divine or wise. For these Dark Romanticists, the world is naturally dark and mysterious. When they reveal the truth about mankind, it is usually possessing evil inside. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of "The Ambitious Guest" is also one of the Dark Romanticist writers who considers men to be originally sinful. Many of his works are cautionary tales that suggest that guilt and evil are the most inherent qualities of human beings, inspired by Puritan New England where he grew up. However, "The Ambitious Guest" did not seem to fit exactly into the category of the usual path of Dark Romantic stories.

The very first thought that came to me after reading “The Ambitious Guest” by Nathaniel Hawthorne was that it was different from other Dark Romantic short stories that I have read. The other ones I have gone through, such as “The Tell Tale Heart” or “The Cask of Amontillado”, were literally dark. They used negative vocabularies, and they were all about murders and revenges. However, in “The Ambitious Guest”, no one tried to get revenge on anyone, or to murder anyone out of jealousy or inferiority. It does have a core theme in exploring human beings, but in a different sense than other Dark Romantic stories. This one gave me a more fundamental wonder on human beings, ourselves. Why do we want to know about something that we don’t know?

To look back on myself, there were usually two different reasons why I wanted to find out the unknowns. Most of the time was because I felt anxious whenever I saw someone else knowing something that I didn’t know. (To specify, those were mostly personal things such as who like whom and that kind of stuff.) The other reason, though it only took up a very little percentage unfortunately, was out of pure curiosity. I believe this exists in every single person. Although it has no direct relationship with me, I sometimes like to dig into the world of science. Nowadays I’m very interested in physical chemistry, so that could be one of the examples.

As there is always “the middle” existing, I sometimes seek for something on my own, neither because I feel anxious nor out of pure curiosity; maybe both because I feel anxious and I feel curious. One big example is that I’m almost insanely interested in politics. I’ve been always proud of the fact that I spend comparably long time giving attention to the society and its controversial issues. I have considered some people as cowards just because they say that they are indifferent about those issues. Ironically, I sometimes want to be like them, having no interest toward the society, only caring for myself. I feel tired, and wonder about where this curiosity might have come out of. But the reason I can’t stop giving attention, is perhaps because I want to feel the superiority over others. I might have been hiding my feeling in the name of “curiosity” to justify myself.

Overall, I still don’t know the answer for the question “Why do we want to know about something that we don’t know?” Well actually I think I don’t know. Perhaps, I want to pretend as if I don’t know. But, there’s one thing I can guarantee: having curiosity and ambition is never a bad thing. Hawthorne does not seem to be describing curiosity as a good thing; rather, he seems to be believing that ignorance is a bliss sometimes. But, I don' think so. Whatever the reason for that curiosity is, all of us human beings have rights to know about the world. Trying not to know is a mere shield for those who are afraid to know more. Although I could not find the exact answer to the question that I threw at first, this reflection was a very meaningful opportunity for me, to have time to think more deeply on myself and on the whole group of human beings by extension. I hope to be able to have a definite answer for the question someday later in my life.