The Cruelty of the Crowd: Reading Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “My Kinsman, Major Molineux” (1832) | Stephen Basdeo

Hawthorne’s “My Kinsman, Major Molineux” remains unsettlingly relevant. Beneath its colonial setting lies a searching reflection on public humiliation, crowd cruelty, political violence, and the desire to belong. Robin’s laughter at his disgraced kinsman reminds us how easily people join the crowd when pity becomes dangerous.