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  • Essay / Recognizing the Truth in Humanity in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    Failing to recognize the truth in humanity leaves Young Goodman Brown in a sad, skeptical, disparate ending in Nathaniel Hawthorne's story with a similar title . On the outside, the story appears to be a reflection and indictment of the hypocrisy of the people around Brown. Deep within the story's ideas is a man who believes that faith is constant, exact, and fixed, but as he begins the journey to the forest, he realizes that this faith is depthless. Young Goodman Brown is a naive and inexperienced man who fails to recognize that there is a good and bad side in every person. He judges the virtue of people he previously considered sincere (or devoid of evil) only to know that they are all, in one way or another, polluted by the sin of the world. Hawthorne's reflection on Salem's life helps derive the morality that proposes inescapable evil in a person, and that accepting this reality can help one live fully. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Hawthorne delves into a society painted in purity but tarnished by evil. It reveals Goodman Brown's transformation from moral decency to moral decadence as well as stagnation. This shift from a newlywed, pure life to the darkness of the forest and encounter with the devil demonstrates a larger moral pattern. From a deconstructionist perspective, it seems that with the loss of innocence, an individual comes to recognize that evil is as prevalent as good. Brown relationship with an innocent woman, Faith, as her name suggests, feeds into her worldview concept of innocence. Again, although he is aware that the journey he is undertaking is one of "evil designs", he does not seem to understand the outcome of the journey when he enters a forest characterized by "excellent determination". (Hawthorne 233). In the forest, Brown now learns to see the world and those close to him not through the prism of innocence but as a mature person who has been taken into the world of maturity as well as reality. The countless revelations, including his wife's role in the forest of rituals, aim to shatter the shred of innocence while allowing him to recognize that he is also evil. When confronted with the true nature of Goody Close, it reveals that Brown is still innocent even with the conversion of a rod into a snake. Hawthorne states that "Brown could not realize this" (236), which further shows that he still could not understand the true nature of humanity, that good and evil are closely related. Whether through seduction or submission, evil is the song of humanity and as Hawthorne seems to suggest that no one is perfect out there, no matter the background. Brown's naivety makes him believe that "what you see is what you get." He never bothers to understand beyond the surface and assumes everything is good based on the value in front of it. When he realizes that his people are “in league with the devil,” Brown is distraught. The presence of evil is evident as he begins the journey to the forest, which symbolizes wickedness and sin (Levin 345). The road is characterized by darkness and encloses him by quickly closing behind him, showing the abdication of faith. He walks with the devil as he advances through the forest. Brown states that “faith held him for a time,” showing that he was once true to his beliefs before being consumed by inescapable evil (Hawthorne 217). His mental instability, his inconsistency in faith and his distrusttowards others illustrate the conflicts between good and evil. This brings about a change in the concept of trust and faith, in his personal life and in his interactions with others, and particularly with his wife. As the journey into the forest continues, Brown begins to become suspicious of the community. He meets many people who go to the congregation. They all seem prayerful and pious.community. Seeing their actions, Brown begins to distrust them, which makes him consider returning to his wife. He doesn't seem to understand how to create a dichotomy between evil and good at the center of the journey. If Brown had been convinced that every human being is inevitable, he would never have had trouble trusting those around him. Instead, he deliberately seeks to test his faith and finds himself faced with an almost overwhelming challenge of enduring lucidity (Levy 375). With his innocence and little exposure to harsh reality, the result of his enterprise is a hallucinatory vision of people he once perceived as good associating with bad people. The brown perception of evil in others, according to Levin, is only his erroneous and narrow conception of humanity. Human communion based on the recognition of the evil selfishness of each person is based on the truth that only the strong can endure this harsh reality. The idea that humanity is perfection or perhaps that good Puritans are differentiated from imperfection seems to dominate Brown's worldview. Hawthorne uses this naivety to illustrate that any human struggle against temptations and the devil and living a completely perfect life is almost impossible. Anyone who does not recognize this truth will eventually die because of their own loss. However, not everyone needs to know this truth, because the sooner they recognize it, the harder it will be to bear. Brown does not appreciate this truth because he believes in the kingdom of a perfect world where individuals are never close to the sin of the world. What he doesn't understand is that no one is perfect and everyone has done something wrong in the past. In fact, Brown himself is evil because he chooses to leave the faith he strongly believed in, to the point where he decides to leave his wife and begin a journey into the forest. There is an undeniable connection between human beings and evil, and this, if not properly understood, can cause damage to human relationships. Nathaniel Hawthorn raises the question of whether everyone should recognize that even close family, friends, or the community have some aspects of evil within them. The answer to this question simply depends on an individual's self-confidence. If one is confident in one's ability to survive in the midst of harsh reality, even the closest people can become evil. Otherwise, a vulnerable and doubtful person like Goodman Brown is not strong enough to handle the complexity associated with recognizing that everyone has bad attributes. Perhaps Brown misunderstood the meaning of “Faith” in its ease, with the hope of living a life without doubt of evil (Hawthorne 234). Brown embodies the repercussions of an excessively devout attitude in a rather secular world. He is happy with his wife, local and faith in general, so far his beliefs are all bad. During this discovery, he reveals in a certain way his perverse aspect as a human being. Hawthorne is of the opinion that human nature does good and evil by forming an ordinary character who has these two thoughts. This means that humanity is generally an epic struggle between good and evil, even in the absence of pyxies or flaming catapults. Brown not only enters reality with the real devil, but also has to do.