The point of view switches to Nathaniel Hawthorne, giving a narrative account of his life from childhood to the moment when he encounters Mia in the woods. Nathaniel’s father died when he was four years old, and his mother was incapacitated by grief. When Nathaniel was nine, he injured his leg and was housebound for nearly two years. The isolation and early tragedy led him to experience periodic dark moods and an active imagination. One of his ancestors was a judge at the Salem witch trials who never regretted his actions, and he and his descendants were cursed by his victims. Nathaniel believed that he could right the wrongs of the past with his present actions.

When his father died, Nathaniel’s family was left with very little money or property, and they were supported by Nathaniel’s uncles, Richard and Robert Manning. Both men believed in practicality above artistry and encouraged Nathaniel to give up dreaming and writing to become financially sound. Though grateful to his uncles, Nathaniel resisted, “insisting that no man could be both a bookkeeper and a poet, and that he intended to be the latter” (135).