Hawthorne uses imagery and fig. language and comparison to convey his message that the gov. is like an eagle. Giving a sort of negative tone as he describes the eagle is apt to “flying off her nestling” In this passage from Hawthorne 's “Custom house” Hawthorne describes his nostalgia for the custom house of Salem in saying “ has grass enough growing in its chinks to show it has not, of late days’’ Using imagery to describe how dreary and a shell of its former self it has become all to remind people of the port city it used to be. His spite of the merchants who moved away to places like New York away from Salem is evident as he speaks about them and how often ships pass through the harbor now.