... of knowledge. The poet and author Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates these natural truths in the outward appearance of a short story titled " My Kinsman, Major Molineux." Within the contents of this tale, a young lad named Robin sets off from his home in the country, on a journey to the little metropolis of a ... of the story to understand how the changes of one's reality are at a constant rate. The character of Major Molineux represents an ego trapped within a self-indulged idealism. He refuses to adaptively change to the world around him, maintaining an out of date mode of thinking. At on...

• Word Count: 1004
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... goes on to list several artistic masterpieces and inventions to serve as examples of the magnificence of things that can occur when we play in the imaginative world but live within the actualities of each day. As he explains, "I could enumerate many more of these Utopian inventions; but, after all, a more imaginative collection is to be found in the Patent Office ... in Washington. The finest and most brilliant things humanity has created are those that were given birth in the earthly world by individuals who first conceived of their splendor in a dream. In Robert Frost's "Birches," the...

• Word Count: 859
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate