Three Body Paragraphs In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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3 Body Paragraphs

Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the religious background of the setting of “Young Goodman Brown” to help show how easily a person can change from pure and honest to sinful.[”The Puritan church was a religious body that placed responsibility for salvation on individuals rather than religious leaders.”The Puritans also believed that God had predestined some of his creations for salvation](SOURCE).Goodman Brown happened to be grandson to one of those predestined for salvation, and because of this he felt that it would not be of any consequence for him to make a little sin by heading into the woods at night.Goodman Brown shows that because of his high confidence in being spiritually pure he is willing to sin because he feels like his …show more content…

Even though everyone sins one way or another they chose to be cognitively dissonant of their own sins by not allowing others to know about their sins. [The famous event that happened in 1692 was the Salem Witch Trials, which happen because of their belief in witchcraft.During these trials innocent people would be falsely accused of being a witch or being affiliated with the devil that the town deemed the the only reasonable punishment for them was death.](SOURCE)The idea of keeping sins hidden from others and the belief that witchcraft existed in Salem can be shown to both be related to the short story. Another important factor related to the physical setting in the short story of “ Young Goodman Brown” has to be the mentioning of the two locations Salem and Boston.”The clock of the Old South was striking, as I came through Boston; and that is a full fifteen minutes agone”(Hawthorne).Goodman Brown starts his journey in Salem but somehow in a mere fifteen minutes manges to trek his way all the way to Boston.The two cities are not close enough for anyone to travel by foot

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