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A review by readwithsummer
Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
4.0
Oh wow.
At first, I thought it was saying that there is evil in humankind. It is there, everywhere you look, everywhere you go - you can find it, crimes and sin. "Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race." says the devil.
But then by the end, we don't know if that's true or not. Was the town really all there, or was it an allusion, a dream? It doesn't matter - what matters is the effect that it has on Goodman Brown. He spends the rest of his life miserable, utterly miserable, because he looks at everyone as if they are evil sinners. And that in itself is what makes him miserable - his belief that everyone is bad.
"In truth, all through the haunted forest there could be nothing more frightful than the figure of Goodman Brown."
But maybe it's not true. Maybe it's just his perception.
Which means... the moral of the story is that you can't just focus on the bad in people - it will make you miserable - you need to focus on the good, and mostly on the good, to find joy and happiness.
(4.5 - turns out I love Hawthorne!)
At first, I thought it was saying that there is evil in humankind. It is there, everywhere you look, everywhere you go - you can find it, crimes and sin. "Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race." says the devil.
But then by the end, we don't know if that's true or not. Was the town really all there, or was it an allusion, a dream? It doesn't matter - what matters is the effect that it has on Goodman Brown. He spends the rest of his life miserable, utterly miserable, because he looks at everyone as if they are evil sinners. And that in itself is what makes him miserable - his belief that everyone is bad.
"In truth, all through the haunted forest there could be nothing more frightful than the figure of Goodman Brown."
But maybe it's not true. Maybe it's just his perception.
Which means... the moral of the story is that you can't just focus on the bad in people - it will make you miserable - you need to focus on the good, and mostly on the good, to find joy and happiness.
(4.5 - turns out I love Hawthorne!)