Lost In The Wilderness

3 Pages 783 Words

Lost in the Wilderness: The Outcome of Goodman Brown’s Journey through the Woods-Good or Evil?

Human beings are social creatures who long to just fit in. Consequently, these groups or communities we associate ourselves with help us to determine how we view all things-tangible and intangible-that surround us. This statement may seem far-fetched at first, but just imagine the amount of mental and emotional damage one would suffer from prolonged periods of social isolation. Yet, in what situations would an individual subject themselves to such punishment? Incarceration perhaps, but this type of separation is not voluntary. By the end of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown,” the main character voluntarily removes himself from his once trusted family and community. This action of voluntary isolation itself is perplexing, while at the same time frustrating, because it is never revealed whether Goodman Brown’s experiences that led to his social separation were good or evil for him. Instead, the story is filled with allegorical implications that the reader must pull from to figure out the answer to this question.
In the beginning of the story, Brown is seen as innocent and naïve in his refusal to admit that evil is all around us. Even as the devil declares his acquaintance with Brown’s family, he dismisses this notion firmly stating, “We are people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide by no such wickedness” (Hawthorne 612). Only when Brown sees his most prominent “spiritual advisors” (612) traveling through the un-Godly like woods does he realize that his trusted community is not as wholesome as he initially believed. Be that as it may, this experience could be viewed as “good” for Brown. For instance, before his voyage into the woods, he never knew that such sin and wickedness existed in the world. Eventually, Brown stumbles out of the woods, “staring around him like a b...