Nathaniel Hawthorne an American romantic writer, whose literature is known for its Anti-Transcendentalism, wrote Young Goodman Brown and The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne is a writer during the American Romantics, where the majority of writing is focused on nature, supernatural elements; one’s psychology and the criticism of society’s “norm”. Nathaniel is Hawthorne known for his notorious Anti-Transcendentalist literature. Anti-Transcendentalism ideals are about one’s evil and inner and sinful nature, where everyone is born evil and no matter what, and that humanity is evil and destructive. Hawthorne is not able to accept the optimism of the Transcendentalists and …show more content…
He is never the same and trusts no one, including his wife. It says that he snatched away the children that Goody Cloyse was talking to and when his wife embraced him he just walked away.(YGB 7 )Hawthorne uses Goodman Brown to show that everyone is evil inside and that he human spirit is destructive. Character development acknowledges a role in how Hawthorne’s literature should be classified as Anti-Transcendentalist. Character Development is not the only factor that classifies Hawthorne’s literature as Anti-Transcendentalist; symbols take on an enormous role as well. In the Scarlet Letter two symbols are Pearl, and the actual Scarlet Letter. Pearl is not only a peculiar child for her age she has a much deeper meaning. Pearl is Hester’s living example of her sin. Pearl’s purpose in the Scarlet Letter is to represent sin, but not only to Hester but in the world as well. The Actual Scarlet Letter is also a symbol which represents not only sin, but the Anti-Transcendentalist idea that your sins will never go away, sin will remain evident inside you and around you. These two examples could not exemplify Anti-Transcendentalist beliefs any more as its primary focus is about sinfulness and how people view sin. In Young Goodman Brown a few symbols that