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Young Goodman Brown Research Paper

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Truth. A word, a concept, a reality that philosophers and all humans have been striving to understand. Ancient Greek philosopher Amelius thought that truth was the “bringing of what was previously hidden into the open” and he believed that this access to truth is in all humans and is part of what makes up humans. Nathaniel Hawthorne in his short story Young Goodman Brown delves into a different aspect of human nature; there is some evil in everyone. This allows Young Goodman Brown to be faced with problems many people deal with in one's life. Young Goodman Brown has an obligation to his faith but the Devil pulls him away from his faith, revealing that without beliefs one grows isolated and misanthropical. Brown is a battle for his soul that …show more content…

When Goodman Brown witness even more people whom he thought were holy wondering in the deep part of the woods he cried out to the heavens, “‘I will yet stand firm against the devil!’ cried Goodman Brown” (5). Even though he was exposed to more evil and to the dark side of his village people, Brown turned and opposed the evil around him. The wickedness in the Minister and the Deacon made him grow wary of other people. The devil never stopped trying to get Young Goodman Brown. When he got near the ceremony he was sized and brought in, “But he had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in thought, when the minister and good old Deacon Gookin seized his arms, and led him to the blazing rock” (7). This only deeped Goodman Brown’s misanthropy by having people he thought were holy men commit acts for the devil. Consequently when the night was over Brown still was unfaithful to mankind, “when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled, and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at this wife, and turned away” (8). He didn’t even trust his wife: Faith. The battle to stay a pristine Puritan and commit acts of evil and sin with the devil where too much for Goodman Brown. He tore himself asunder from society and became a sad man. Brown had nothing to anchor himself too; he was no longer a Christian

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