ABSTRACT
The presentation of the two arguments side by side in “The Procession of Life” shows Hawthorne’s familiarity with them, but not where he himself stands regarding industrialization. Like other contemporary travelers, he emphasizes the suddenness by which factories appear in the rural landscape and declares that “there is a sort of picturesqueness in finding these factories, supremely artificial establishments, in the midst of such wild scenery”. It is not clear what inspired the above passage: whether Hawthorne was simply recording something he heard from the villagers, perhaps from that wise man discoursing on manufacturies, or whether he was expressing a fanciful thought that came upon him. The train engine in “The Celestial Railroad,” for instance, becomes indistinguishable from the unfortunate human being who runs it. The “human machines” in Hawthorne’s work are central to his nightmarish vision of progress and industrialization.
