Themes In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

David Lynch Says, “Stories hold conflict and contrast, highs and lows, life and death, and the human struggle and all kinds of things.” This means that story plots may contain joy or sorrow within. The two short stories “Young Goodman Brown,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 1835 and “Where are You Going, How Have You Been” was written by Joyce Carol Oates in 1966 are no exception from the malevolent plots. “Young Goodman Brown” is about Goodman Brown who leaves his wife, Faith for three months on a trip through the forest. Later, he stumbles upon clearing in which a ceremony is held for the newest acolytes, himself and his wife, Faith. He calls out to his wife to resist and the scene vanishes. After going home, he loses faith in his religion and his wife after seeing the scene. “Where are You Going, How Have You Been” is about Connie, a pretty fifteen year old who is against her “plain and chunky” sister and her mother who had “once been pretty” (Oates, 1). However, what her mother does not know is that she spends her free time picking up boys at a Big Boy restaurant. One day, while there, she catches the eye of a stranger. While her her parents are gone, the stranger goes to her home and pressures her to leave. Eventually she does agree to do whatever he says. Even though “Young Goodman Brown” was written over a century earlier than “Where Are You Going, How Have You Been,” both authors express the negativity of human nature. However, Oates, chooses to express the