Good vs. Evil

A detailed Summary of Good vs. Evil

The role of nature and "the wilderness" is a prevalent theme appearing time and again in many pieces of American Literature. The wilderness is a major aspect of both Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative as well as Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown." The theme the wilderness plays in these two works has some similarities yet is very different. In Mary Rowlandson's work it is a place that mainly houses life and goodness. The wilderness is where many tribes live; it is an aspect of everyday life for many people. However, in "Young Goodman Brown" it is a dark place of evil and death. In this work the wilderness is where many lies and deviances begin and also a place where these lies are revealed. The wilderness is the home of the devil and is a site of many deaths and much evil. The wilderness can represent many different things in literature. Here we have two works in which the wilderness represents two separate and distinct themes.

In "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne the wilderness is a site of darkness and evil. In this work the wilderness is the home of the devil and his followers. It is where they meet to convert people into Satanism and where they plan and reveal all their crimes. The w

ilderness is also the foreground of centuries of lies and deviances. We learn many things from Brown's trip through the wilderness. We learn that his conceptions of the people living in his town, as well as his view of his ancestors, are both very misguided. Brown says: "My father never went into the woods on such an errand...We have been a race of honest men and good Christians." (Hawthorne, 615) To this the devil responds by saying "I have been well acquainted with your family...I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman...it was I that brought your father a pitch knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village..." (615) Brown wants to believe that the devil was wrong but the devil does make convincing arguments. On his journey through the wilderness Brown sees many people from his town, both holy and unholy, and notices that they too are sided with evil, namely the devil himself. Throughout his journey Brown's thoughts of his wife, Faith, help him to resist the devil, and he does time and time again. However, he hears Faith's voice and comes to realize that she too was going to be converted to Satanism that night, this completely discourages Brown. When Brown wakes up in the wilderness and returns home he distrusts everyone, including his wife. He comes to believe that everyone is his town is a devil worshipper and that no one could be trusted; he lives his entire life in this belief. Brown viewed nearly all the people in his town that night gathered together, not to fight evil as he once thought they would all do, but to encourage and practice evil and to bring others into thei

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Approximate Word count = 1104
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English