Summary Of Young Goodman Brown By Nathaniel Hawthorne...

The two short stories Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne and A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O Connor both have characters who allow their lives to be altered by the threat of evil. A detour taken by the family in A Good Man is Hard to Find wreaks havoc, while the wrong path taken by Young Goodman Brown leads him to despair. Although Brown, The Misfit, and the Grandmother have different attitudes and take different approaches to evil, all characters eventually go astray and end up isolated from society. Evil is prevalent in both stories as journeys are made down the wrong path. The symbolisms in both stories represent lack of faith and death. Brown is a perfect example of how discovering the existence of evil brings one to view the world in a cynical way. The loneliness and confusion Brown feels represents a life without God, allowing him to be deceived by Satan, unable to escape the presence of evil. The Grandmother perceives herself as a morally good character though her actions seem to create a downfall for the family. The Misfit is portrayed as an evil man who is a cold-blooded killer, which is brought on by his evil perceptions of people, and lack of goodness in his life. Both stories illustrate how sac religious behavior is evil. one will see how a relationship with God is good. Unfortunately, as the journeys progress, evil tragically changes lives forever. While different in many ways, both stories show how abandoning one s Christian faith canShow MoreRelatedYoung Goodman Brown from a Moral Standpoint1352 Words   |  6 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts. At the age of four, his father passed away from yellow fever, forcing his family to move in with his uncle. The positively influential Uncle Robert Manning pushed Hawthorne to succeed in school and insisted he go to college. Following his education at Bowdoin College, Hawthorne spent years in isolation mastering the art of writing. It was during those years when H awthorne discovered that his ancestors were founders and Puritan leaders of the SalemRead MoreYoung Goodman Brown By Nathaniel Hawthorne1620 Words   |  7 Pages Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work Young Goodman Brown reveals how hard it is in the revelation of the harsh realities of the society.  The society with is characterized by secrecy.   People hide behind the curtains of daily practices and a normal life despite the odd their practices. However, anxiety reveals the realities of people in the community that may come with great prices as for the Nathaniel Hawthorne’s main character Goodman Brown.  Viewing theRead MoreWe All Have Evil Inside874 Words   |  4 PagesWe All Have Evil Inside Nathaniel Hawthorne is best known for his use of allegorical figures in his short stories. The use of allegories help its readers seek a hidden meaning of an object or character to help them understand their significance to the story. In 1835, Hawthorne wrote the short story of â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† where the reader is introduced to an innocent and pure couple who are all about religion and against any evil worshippers. Faith and Goodman Brown will face a diabolic journeyRead MoreEssay on Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown and its Author1272 Words   |  6 PagesInitially, of course, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s literary works went unranked among those of other American and British writers. But his reputation grew gradually even among contemporary critics, until he was recognized as a â€Å"man of genius.† Edgar Allen Poe, in a review of Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† which had been written 12 years prior, said in Godeys Ladys Book, November, 1847, no. 35, pp. 252-6: It was never the fashion (until lately) to speak of him in any summary of our best authorsRead MoreCharacter Comparison of â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† and the â€Å"Lottery†967 Words   |  4 PagesCharacter Comparison of â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† and the â€Å"Lottery† . Mathew Speakman English 102 Professor Katie Robinson July 15, 2012 Thesis Statement: In Nathaniel Hawthornes â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† and Shirley Jacksons â€Å"The Lottery†, we are given a picture of seemingly normal people who are capable of incredible evil. Outline: Opening mood in both stories a. Goodman Browns sets out on a walk in the forest, but knows that evil awaits him. b. TheRead MoreAmerican Authors: Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe1470 Words   |  6 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe â€Å"To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.† Socrates one of the greek philosophers in the 400’s BC, gives a reasonable question about the fear of death. Death affects people and characters very differently in life. In the world of literaryRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne: A Brief Biography1277 Words   |  6 Pages On July 4, 1804, an author by the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne was born (Meltzer). As Hawthorne grew, he began to develop a view of himself as â€Å"the obscurest man in American letters.† Through the use of popular themes such as isolation, guilt, and earthly imperfection, Hawthorne was able to involve much of his life and ancestral past in his work to answer his own political and religious wonders (â€Å"Nathaniel†). Hawthorne successfully â€Å"confronts reality rather than evading it† in many of his storiesRead MoreYoung Goodman Brown and The Fall of the House of Usher964 Words   |  4 PagesWhile reading â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I couldn’t help but feel a constant overwhelming sense of dread. The root of this could have come from the story’s dark setting deep within an â€Å"haunted forest† or from Brown’s mysterious â€Å"Devil†-esque companion. While I read, another story came into my mind; the story of the â€Å"Fall of the House of Usher† by Edgar Allan Poe. In Poe’s tale the same heart pounding emotion can be felt as he describes the reunion of two friends within â€Å"the HouseRead MorePoe vs Hawthorne1992 Words   |  8 PagesLiterature Comparisons Between Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne Kimberley Prescott LIT/210 08/01/2012 Sherry Salant Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne Popular literature is incomplete without the names of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both of these authors lived in the same time period, yet lived very opposite lives. In fact, Poe received notoriety for criticizing Nathaniel Hawthorne. (Poe, 1847) In his career, he wrote several critiques of Hawthorne’s workRead MoreThe Most Dangerous Path. Symbolism Is An Effective Literary1814 Words   |  8 Pagesor objects to represent an idea. It also helps the author to portray complex ideas to the reader through much simpler symbols. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism in almost all of his stories and â€Å"his fictional characters’ actions and dilemmas fairly obviously express larger generalizations about the problems of human existence† (Nathaniel Hawthorne 3). â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† is not an exception and is riddled with exquisite uses of symbolism. For readers who are willing to go beyond the surface of