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Young Goodman Brown Compare And Contrast Essay

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Living Somewhere in Between

Good and evil are present within every person one will encounter in his/her life. Is it better for to just solely focus on the good and live life blissfully ignorant, or to focus on just the bad and live life aware and depressed? Is it easier to focus on the bad in others and ignore its presence in oneself? Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays both of these situations in his stories “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Minister’s Black Veil,” showing the reader that the world is not simply black and white. There is a grey, blended area for one to live in that allows him/her to live peaceful but not ignorant. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown is naïve. At first, he is stuck on the idea that everyone is good but still chooses to meet with the devil in the forest out of curiosity. He knows that the devil is evil and a bad person, but feels as long as he clings to Faith once he gets home he will be safe. Goodman Brown encounters several people that he knows while on his walk in the …show more content…

It is also often easier for one to point out the flaws and shortcomings of others rather than to realize that he/she is actually staring into a reflection of him/herself. For some, it is also easier to see the good in everybody but him/herself. The people in the story who see just the evil in the minister spend their time gossiping and afraid of him. They are so convinced that he has committed some terrible crime, so quick to judge him that they fail to see what it says about themselves. It is often that what one usually sees in another person is actually a reflection of him/herself. That is why it was easier for the sinners to accept the minister. They knew that they were sinners as well and it brought them comfort to think that even someone as good as a minister can commit a sin. In recognition, one will usually find

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