Though Brook Farm was founded on educational tenets, Hawthorne was overwhelmed by the workload, and his vicious invectives against the community did not convey the objective conditions at Brook Farm, but rather the extreme negative side of Brook Farm—which Hawthorne needed to see before he could allow himself to leave.
	By June, Hawthorne’s optimism was completely gone. He wrote, “[t]hat abominable gold-mine! Thank God, we anticipate getting rid of its treasures in the course of two or three days! Of all hateful places that is the worst”. The summer apparently took a toll on Hawthorne, and he did not write again until August 12th. That day, he expressed that, “[e]ven my Custom House experience was not such a thralldom and weariness; my head and heart were free. Oh, labor is the curse of the world”. This hyperbole was written by Hawthorne for Hawthorne—he did not intend for his journals to be published or released to the public. In this way, Hawthorne tried to convince himself that he was doing the right thing by leaving. By taking an extreme stance, he justified his decision in his own mind. 
At that point, Hawthorne just wanted to leave the community. He initially hoped that he and his companion could live there together. Because leaving the community meant giving up this potential future and a considerable sum of money, Hawthorne had to convince himself that he could absolutely never live there. He wrote of the “one other week that I shall remain a slave”, again using hyperbole to express the sheer horribleness of Brook Farm. He expressed his hopefulness for a living in “little books as I mean to write”. On Brook Farm, he often felt that his labor had left him too exhausted to write, or that he simply did not have enough time. He used his journal to establish that he simply could not live his life happily on Brook Farm.
	Over the course of his stay at Brook Farm, Hawthorne changed dramatically. He wrote initially of his determination and excitement to become a laborer. A month later, he skipped work to read. By June, he complained of spending long days toiling in the fields as if it were the worst fate anyone could ever be forced to endure. He preferred more scholarly pursuits—even the dreadfully boring Custom House was preferable to Hawthorne. His shift to the negative conveys his need to convince himself that, despite the time, energy, and money he had invested in Brook Farm, he had to leave. He wrote of Brook Farm in such negative terms because he had to justify leaving.
	Brook Farm put a priority on education. Instead of focusing on that, however, Hawthorne wrote about the labor. His journal reflects a frustration with having to constantly work, and a wish that there was more time to read and write. The very fact that Hawthorne kept a journal reflects his desire to write, not work. 