We deal with evil and innocence daily. We are not without sin, nor do we expect ourselves or others to be. We accept this to be true, and we deal with this fact, as best we know how. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “Young Goodman Brown” is one of lost innocence and the inability to face the reality of human nature. The Calvanistic teachings of Brown’s era were much to blame for many of his …showed first 75 words of 988 total…

…showed last 75 words of 988 total…our society today. Using symbolistic settings and leading citizens, Hawthorne is stating that all persons, of every age, class, race and walk of life, are capable of sin. This story is not so much an indictment of Goodman Brown’s society as it is an indictment of hypocrisy. Society and religion basically remain unchanged. People are also quite the same: in public, they show themselves to be pure; in private, they are flawed and sinful.