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Young Goodman Brown vs. Paul

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Young Goodman Brown vs. Paul
Young Goodman Brown vs. Paul

After studying the short stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne 's "Young Goodman Brown" and Willa Cather 's "Paul 's Case", I began to see many similarities within the two stories. Both of the main characters in each story have characteristics that could be looked at as being alike, but after analyzing each character I started to find that although alike in some aspects, these two characters are very different from one another. At first I noticed that both Goodman Brown and Paul are starved for attention, but in different ways. Next, I see that each character has issues with their past and are both trying desperately to overcome them. Finally, I found that each character 's main goal in life was the desire to become something outstanding in their communities. Each of these points is evidence that although similar, each character has many different views on how to accomplish their goals. First, we will start with Goodman Brown. He is the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's short story titled "Young Goodman Brown". "Hawthorne could not escape the influence of Puritan society" (McCabe). I think that Hawthorne 's own past is and complications are reveled in his story about Goodman Brown. I believe that Goodman Brown has had a rough past and is trying to reach beyond his past in order to reach heaven. Goodman has some major problems with his wife, Faith, and everyone else in his community. I think that he is seeing everyone as perfect people, but he is having impure thoughts about himself and his past. In order to deal with these problems within himself, he is making up that everyone has this awful bad side. When he goes into the forest, he believes he is talking to the devil with looks much like his grandfather. The devil is feeding him bad thoughts about everyone he knows, even his own father and his wife Faith. Next, I believe that Goodman Brown has had a rough past and in order for him to overcome this within himself



Cited: Cather, Willa "Paul 's Case: A Study in Temperament" Online, Available @ http://unx1.shsu.edu/~eng_wpf/authors/Cather November 19, 2004 Hawthorne, Nathaniel "The Text of Nathaniel Hawthorne 's "Young Goodman Brown"." Online, Available @ http://itech.fgcu.edu/Hawthorne.htm November 19, 2004 McCabe, Michael E. "The Consequences of Puritan Depravity and Distrust as Historical Context for Hawthorne 's "Young Goodman Brown"." Online, Available @ http://itech.fgcu.edu/facualty/wohlpart/alra/Hawthorne.htm November 19, 2004

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