The Influence of Society on the Young Goodman Brown Essay -- essays re

Nathaniel Hawthornes untested Goodman cook illustrates vividly how society and elaboration can very much influence a persons sense of identity and belonging, or in the case of small Goodman cook the lack thereof. Being a Puritan man in a society that scorned the ways of witches and the devil, Young Goodman Br declare grew up with a very pious outlook on life. Yet when it occurs to him to look at life a little bit differently, Young Goodman Brown receives more than than he has bargained for. The journey he embarks on sheds a whole rising-fashioned light on his society that not only creates a deal between himself and his familiar men but also one indoors himself. From the beginning of Hawthornes story a test of assurance prevails. From the jiffy that Young Goodman Brown parts with his wife, Faith, to when they meet again at the warmness of the forest, the very manner Young Goodman Brown has been taught his entire life is at stake. Yet it is not so much Goodman Browns fai th in God that is the concern but whether or not Goodman Brown feels he can trust anyone or anything he has ever be intimate to know and believe in. Society has preconditioned him to think a trusted way, thus through this journey Young Goodman Brown cannot deal with the new Puritan life he witnesses. Since he is unsure of what his society is in truth like Goodman Brown is now incapable of knowing his place in society and knowing whom he really is.In an article authorise Cultural Fate and Social liberty in Three American Stories Walter Shear discusses how Young Goodman Brown swings out of time, paradoxically and almost deliriously senses his power, and then moves abruptly back to contemp belated his cultural fate. It is up to Goodman Brown if, upon his return to his home, he will wait with a resigned joy at his place in the world or with an irreconcilable sharpness at his powerlessness (548). Young Goodman Brown goes into the forest at scratch with only a small expectation o f what he is going to experience. Of his fellow Puritan society he sees the bad seeds as well as supposed men and women of the utmost regard. He sees virgin girls filled with care and innocence, and even members of the church present at the devils ceremony. This causes Young Goodman Brown to question his entire upbringing and trust in his society. It creates... ...o into the forest. unless he did therefore choosing to chance the event of seeing something he power never would have wanted to see. But now it is too late and poor Young Goodman Brown has become a prisoner of his own mind for he is unsure of what is real anymore. Even on the sidereal day he died he was filled with gloom.The story of Young Goodman Brown presents a pare with the clash of Goodman Browns cultural fate of world a Puritan and his mind that is exposed to unholy acts. He goes from a prisoner of only what his society has shown him to a prisoner of the fate to live in it even after he learns its potential evi lness. By not succumbing to the sinfulness of his journey, Young Goodman Brown in turn succumbs to the struggle within his mind. He is trapped by taunting thoughts and allows his life to be guided by the confusion that has caused him to forever question reality.Works CitedHawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. Fantastic Tales Random House, Inc. New York 1997. 181-196.Shear, Walter. Cultural Fate and Social Freedom in Three Stories. Studies in Short Fiction Newberry Fall 1992. 294. 543-49.