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Judging Young Goodman Brown By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Decent Essays

Emy Gore : 1444769
Professor Sharp
English 1033-18
23 September 2013
Judging Young Goodman Brown
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. We first see Browns opinion on those around him when he shows up to the ceremony in the woods and thinks that “It was strange to see that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints.” (Hawthorne 1128). This is when Brown first realizes that some of the people he believes complete saints truly weren’t, but rather were sinners in disguise. It was said that when Brown first came onto the streets after the ceremony, he

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