Sin In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

The story “Young Goodman Brown” was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is about a man named Young Goodman Brown who pays a visit with the devil in the woods one night. He ends up having a much different experience than he thought would happen. As Brown was in the woods conversing with the devil he sees a few people from his town cross his path. Along with them held a secret sin that he did not know existed in his very own community. As the tale went on the secret sin showed in Young Goodman Brown, how he was affected by the secret sin in the lives of others, and how this change his relationship with people he lived near. Young Goodman Brown was an innocent man in his society, and he always saw that others had this same character as well. That aspect shifted on the night he met the devil. When the secret sin made its appearance into the home of the area where they all lived in. The sin started to illustrate itself in Brown by his actions. His encounter with Lucifer presented how he too had a sin that nobody was aware of. While he not only met up with the devil, the evil spirit also handed Brown his staff. The devil said to Brown, “this is a dull pace for the beginning of a journey. Take my staff, if you are so soon weary”

As he was walking home he saw the minister taking a walk to go get breakfast. Also, Brown came upon Deacon Gookin who was at domestic worship. Brown heard Gookin holy words through the window saying, “What God doth the wizard pray to?” (Hawthorne 329). At last he saw Goody Cloyse catechizing a little girl. When Brown saw this he became angry and snatched the little girl away from her. When he reached home he saw Faith, his wife, and she ran towards him with such excitement. He did not even budge, but instead he looked sad and stern and kept walking on. His life changed drastically just in one night, and the whole town had a part in that