Allegory of the Cave vs. Young Goodman Brown

Similarities of "Young Goodman Brown" vs. "The Allegory of the Cave"

Young Goodman Brown and The Allegory of the Cave have a lot of similarities in their stories. They 're both talking about a person 's struggle with good vs. evil. Also, they both refer to the darkness vs. the light. People deal with these type of struggles everyday. These two stories seem to be the epitome of that concept. In Young Goodman Brown, the story is revolving around a man who lives in Salem and seems to be struggling with his views on religion and the virtues of good and evil. He takes a dreary road headed towards an evil purpose even though his wife who has good virtues begs him not to take that path. But like most people, he decides to take it anyway, and hopes that he can come back after all the evil was done and still have the good part in his life. Young Goodman Brown was headed to an evil ritual and on his way to this ritual continues to struggle with his inner voice and whether or not he was doing the right thing. Yet, he continues to justify why the evil should prevail. He was struggling between whether or not he was doing the right thing. Yet, he continues to justify why the evil should prevail. He was struggling between whether he was in reality or whether it is just a dream and a figment of his imagination. In the end, Young Goodman Brown lets evil prevail and he lives a dreary, gloomy life and dies a gloomy death. The Allegory of the Cave is a story similar to Young Goodman Brown. It was a struggle between good and evil, enlightened or unenlightened, light vs. dark. It follows a prisoner and his struggle with the light vs. darkness. "The prison dwelling corresponds to the region revealed to us through a sense of sight, and the fire-light within it to the power of the Sun…." (Allegory of the Cave 731) This passage shows how he was wanting so badly to see the good, but yet the prison walls lock in the darkness that follows him. He struggles everyday with the goodness and the evil that the prison throws at him. It literally encompasses his life, this was all he thought, dreamt, and lived. In the end, he realizes that he was destined for something better than where he was at the tries to life by this hope. Both Young Goodman Brown and the Allegory of the Cave were very good stories concerning a persons everyday struggles with goodness and evil. It portrays this struggle with two very different scenarios, yet gets the message across very strong and clear. This allows the readers to interact and associate with the two stories because everyone has these issues at one time or another in their life. The stories were somewhat dark in perception, yet have a very good message and seem to truly help understand the turmoil a person goes through everyday with good and evil. These two stories portray these issues perfectly and reveal how people from every different type of situation deal with this issue on a daily basis. Young Goodman Brown and The Allegory of the Cave are two very different essays, yet they both try to capture the ever longing battle with Good and Evil.
Young Goodman Brown tries to capture the essence of Good versus Evil concerning witchcraft and different religions. Although Young Goodman Brown is primarily regarding a man 's struggle with Good versus evil, one could say it could be an inside struggle of the man 's mind; His struggle with his religion issues and what each one will do to his life for years to come. The essay focuses on Young Goodman Brown 's journey through a forest in which he runs into a ceremony/ritual going on. It focuses on the good and bad people that he encounters on the way and his struggles with reality and the figment of his imagination. The essay provides an insight on one man 's battles with good versus evil in the religion aspect of his life and how each consequence will forever change his life. The Allegory of the Cave is an essay about a man in prison and his battle with the good and evil that encompasses him while in prison. The essay tries to capture the essence of good versus evil, but in a totally different scenario. The Allegory of the Cave could be centered around a man with a mental illness and it 's about his struggle with battling his mental illness. This could be from being put in solitude or the different encounters he has at the Prison.
The Allegory of the Cave centers around a prisoner who knows that he put himself in prison by his actions, but is now realizing that not all evil has to prevail from this experience. Even though there are many things that try and keep an evil/bad presence around him. He finds good in different things he does. But he struggles with allowing the good to overtake his life through all the bad/evil.
The two essays are similar in that they both tackle the discussion of good versus evil. They both use extreme situations to give a detailed perception of this issue. Both essays are very interesting in their expressions of each scenario and the outcomes of each. These are just two very good examples of the everyday struggles with Good and Evil that people have in their lives.

Works Cited
Gwynn, R.S. and Zani, Steven J. Inside Literature- Reading, Responding, Arguing.
New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007.

Cited: Gwynn, R.S. and Zani, Steven J. Inside Literature- Reading, Responding, Arguing. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007.