A Summary of Young Goodman Brown and The Road to Miclantecutli
Critical Lens Essay
English11
“Literature opens a dark window on the soul, revealing more about what is bad in human nature than what is good” is what someone once said. In other words, authors tend to focus more on the bad in humans, rather than the good. Two perfect examples to prove this true are Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Road to Miclantecutli” by Adobe James. To begin, “Young Goodman Brown showed more evil than good. Hawthorne used symbolism to depict evil. The staff for example, had a serpent on it and it belonged to the second traveler, otherwise known as the devil. The serpent staff and the second traveler symbolized evil. Also, the woods and path that Young Goodman Brown walked through represented the path to sin and Satan. Hawthorne also used imagery to convey a dark and evil mood and setting. Rather than writing about happy or cheerful things, he focused more on the bad things in human nature. Adobe James’ “The Road to Miclanecutli”, is also a great example of how literature reveals more of the bad things in life rather than good. First of all, the protagonist, Morgan, is characterized by the author as a bad person right in the beginning of the story. He was a criminal, on his way to be put to death for his crimes. On the way, he killed the officer taking him to die. This shows how Morgan is not a good person at all. The theme also plays a major part in revealing more bad things than good. “All people are evil” was the theme of this short story. Despite all of the signs to go with the padre, he chose to do the bad thing and go with the evil woman, also known as the devil in disguise, and due to his choice he suffered the consequences and went to Hell. This work clearly did not reveal any good aspects, only bad. In summation, through symbolism, imagery, characterization and theme, “Literature opens a dark window on the soul, revealing more about what is bad in human nature than what is good” is proven true in
English11
“Literature opens a dark window on the soul, revealing more about what is bad in human nature than what is good” is what someone once said. In other words, authors tend to focus more on the bad in humans, rather than the good. Two perfect examples to prove this true are Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Road to Miclantecutli” by Adobe James. To begin, “Young Goodman Brown showed more evil than good. Hawthorne used symbolism to depict evil. The staff for example, had a serpent on it and it belonged to the second traveler, otherwise known as the devil. The serpent staff and the second traveler symbolized evil. Also, the woods and path that Young Goodman Brown walked through represented the path to sin and Satan. Hawthorne also used imagery to convey a dark and evil mood and setting. Rather than writing about happy or cheerful things, he focused more on the bad things in human nature. Adobe James’ “The Road to Miclanecutli”, is also a great example of how literature reveals more of the bad things in life rather than good. First of all, the protagonist, Morgan, is characterized by the author as a bad person right in the beginning of the story. He was a criminal, on his way to be put to death for his crimes. On the way, he killed the officer taking him to die. This shows how Morgan is not a good person at all. The theme also plays a major part in revealing more bad things than good. “All people are evil” was the theme of this short story. Despite all of the signs to go with the padre, he chose to do the bad thing and go with the evil woman, also known as the devil in disguise, and due to his choice he suffered the consequences and went to Hell. This work clearly did not reveal any good aspects, only bad. In summation, through symbolism, imagery, characterization and theme, “Literature opens a dark window on the soul, revealing more about what is bad in human nature than what is good” is proven true in