Compare And Contrast The Lottery And Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” both tell stories using literary techniques of tone, symbolism, and irony that help to convey stories that leave the reader baffled by their ending. Although Hawthorne and Jackson utilize these literary techniques in a different way, both of the stories end with a sense of darkness.

The hazards of following tradition or living according to society norms; doing things just because society accepts and follows.

Thesis Statement: "The Lottery by Shirley Jackson" and " Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthrone" stories, Shirley Jackson encourages her readers to question their beliefs, actions, and the world by creating struggle.

How do our relationships with others define who we are? Others affect us greatly. The people who surround us everyday have a great impact on our own life. Friends and family are the people who create you, and are part of the reason of who you are today. For example, when there’s a new trend, or when someone says a mean comment, you might change something about you at one point or another. Who affects your life?

The stories we read in class had a lot of distinct similarities in each story. One similarity I saw was; all the stories introduced their settings in the beginning. Also, all the stories explain some truths about the world we live in. For example, in The Lottery, this story shows the danger of blindly following traditions of the community was so used to playing the lottery, that it has become a normal habit for them not realizing the damage this “lottery” is causing them and the people who has to lose their life for it. Another example, in The Lottery, is when Mrs. Delacroix turned against her good friend Tessie by picking up the largest stone to kill her which shows that there are certain friends you may have and when certain situations happens, their true colors will show and they may not have been a true friend to begin with. Also, in Young Goodman Brown, along his spiritual journey he encountered people he knew already, but then those people started to act the total opposite of what Goodman thought of his friends. This shows that in life, not everything is what it seems, no matter how you see it. Another example is

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown,” the author Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the fragility of humans when it comes to their morality. Goodman Brown goes on a journey through the forest with the devil to watch the witches’ ritual and observes the evil in the Puritan society. He loses his faith as he sees the people he respects the most participating in the sinful ritual. Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes setting, and symbolism in his short story “Young Goodman Brown,” to show how a person’s perspective can change by showing the hypocritical nature of the Puritan society

Nebeker, Helen E. “The Lottery’: Symbolic Touch De Force” Short Story Criticism, edited by Jenny Cromie, vol. 39, Gale Group, 2000, 75 vols, pp. 187-90. Originally published in American Literature, vol. 46, no. 1, March, 1974, pp. 100-07.

Nathaniel Hawthorne comes from a bloodline that is associated with the Salem witch trials in 1692. His great-great-grandfather was a puritan that took part in the executions during the witch trilas, explaining Hawthorne’s fondness with the religion. Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his interest in the News England Puritan past. Most of Hawthorne’s writings implement the Puritan ways and faith in which most of the characters act upon or main faith is revolved around. “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Scarlet Letter” are both one of Hawthorne’s many pieces that are prime examples of the Puritan religion affecting his writing. Through the story Hawthorne uses many allegories representing Christian, but also puritan faith and many symbols relating to them also.

Belief and our actions define who we are and how we behave towards ourselves and those around us. Peoples beliefs have been questioned throughout history and will always be questioned. In “Young Goodman Brown”, author Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates how a man questions his faith and belief, leading to him to go out and to meet with the Devil himself. In turn the man, Goodman Brown, doesn’t believe in anyone in his town again. Shirley Jackson the author of “The Lottery” illustrates actions such as sacrificing others is defining the people of the town almost primitive which leads to those who are going to be sacrificed to question

Even though faith is generally used in a positive connotation, Nathaniel Hawthorne knows that faith can be weaponized and used to prosecute adversaries, as it was in the Salem Witch Trials. He had great family history and personal guilt surrounding the events because his grandfather was the only judge who partook in the trials that did not repent for his perpetrations. He wrote this controversial story to invert the trials and made the narrator convict faith and the community instead. The short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne‎ is an allegory that is anchored by the character Faith, Young Goodman Brown’s wife. Faith is both his innocent and angelic physical wife, and a representation

Young Goodman Brown and the Lottery Symbolism Use In: "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Lottery" The authors, Shirley Jackson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, both frequently use symbols within their stories "The Lottery" and "Young Goodman Brown." Symbols are utilized as an enhancement tool to stress the theme of each story. Hawthorne uses names and objects to enhance the theme, and Jackson mainly utilizes names to stress the theme, although she does have one object as a symbol of great importance to the theme. The stories both contain symbols describing evil. The majority of Hawthorne's symbols describe religion (both good and evil), but Jackson’s symbols reflect the evil nature within society as a whole. There exists a symbolic act in each story.

The short story Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, accurately bestows all aspects of an allegory. According to Merriam Webster, an allegory is a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. Through this work, Hawthorne is able to depict the apparent hypocrisy in today’s world and especially in religion in America. The story is of a man, Young Goodman Brown, who is highly tempted by the devil himself and in the end caves to the pressure due to his lack of faith and even due to a little curiosity. Brown could not help but wonder what this new world could potentially behold for him; unfortunately, his curiosity didn’t change him for the better, only for the worse. The ceremony and changing opened his eyes and made him see the true colors of those around him. We see how Brown loses faith in the people in his community, his family, and especially in himself.

   Nathaniel Hawthorne's works are notable for their treatment of guilt and the complexities of moral choices. "Moral and religious concerns, in short, are almost always present in Hawthorne's work"(Foster, 56). Given Hawthorne's background, it is not a stretch of the imagination to say that his novels are critiques of Puritanism. Hawthorne lived in the deeply scarred New England area, separated from Puritanism by only one generation. His grandfather had been one of the judges in the Salem Witch Trials. Personal issues include the various ways Hawthorne's family and specific events in his life influenced his writing. Readers can easily recognize how "Young Goodman Brown" incorporates

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there is a certain uncertainty, deviousness, and a riddle of wrongdoing living within the citizens of Salem. Young Goodman Brown, a very naive person, is ruined when he realizes the hypocrisy of his religion as he witnesses the truth in the middle of Salem woods. His own people worshipping a being that is not God! Ironically, when Brown confronts his fellow townspeople, he is angered by their responses; they seem to have no recollection of what occurred in the woods. Thus leaving him in a state of insanity, where all Brown senses around him are lies. The natural impulse to keep secrets and lies can harm others. This is embodied in Young Goodman Brown, who goes from a typical puritan to an unkind, judgmental, depressed man.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” (repr. in Thomas R. Arp, and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 8th ed. [Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2002] 316) is a short story with strong Puritan influence. Puritanism is a religion demanding strict moral conduct and strong faith. Puritans held that Christians should do only what the Bible commanded. Analyzing “Young Goodman Brown” is dependant upon understanding the Puritan faith. The influence of the Puritan religion is vivid in literary elements such as setting, allegory, and theme.