Essay Comparing Young Goodman Brown And The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

American Literature plays a prominent role in education. Nathaniel Hawthorn and Washington Irving, are two very influential men of American literature, in the genres that are of humorous and gothic short stories. Their works are treated with the same themes of hypocrisy, the foibles of human nature, and the rejection of strict religious intellect. Nathaniel Hawthorns “Young Goodman Brown” and Washington Irving “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” are considered to be two very dynamic short stories. Both writing styles are within the same essence of themes and portray various symbolism meanings within their works. Young Goodman Brown, is a gothic short story written in the setting of Puritan New England, about the struggle a young “Goodman” by the name of Brown and the fight to maintain his innocence’s as he embarks on a journey through the forest with an elder man who symbolizes to be the devil himself. Nathaniel
Irving, who served as a mentor for subsequent Romantic writers, created comical personages characterized by a strong sense of individualism. Hawthorne's characters, too, are often fiercely individual, but are treated in a much more serious fashion. Ichabod is consider the hero in the piece, sent to Salem village to solve the many murders, claimed to be committed by the towns “tall tale” town ghost story, of the headless horse man “Ichabod...rode with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to the pommel of the saddle; his sharp elbows stuck out like grasshoppers'; he carried his whip perpendicularly in his hand, like a scepter, and, as his horse jogged on, the motion of his arms was not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings.”(Baym, 2007. Pg. 60), unlike Young Goodman Brown, who’s journey wasn’t in a sense of heroism but was a sense of self defiance, brown knew what he was getting into and went against his better judgment and “faith” left his purpose for