Good and Evil and Contradictions Research Paper

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The "contradictory actions" will be strictly limited to the literal statements on the pages authored by Hawthorne in order to avoid evaluation by modern standards perhaps not shared by the Puritans this story discusses

c. Young Goodman Brown seems to come to the conclusion that everyone around him carries the taint of real or potential "sin" or "evil" (Hawthorne 7) which he tries to distance himself from.

3. Considering 2c the working conclusion the character Young Goodman Brown draws given the directly stated evidence that Brown spent the rest of his life "suspicious" and "gloomy" (Hawthorne 8) after the vision related in the story, without interpretation or assignment of value to those terms from modern standpoints,

a. Trying to prevent the Goody Cloyse from corrupting the young girl is not good or bad but inconsistent with a conclusion drawn by Young Goodman Brown (2.c. above)

i. If humans are inherently sinful the little girl is doomed anyway

ii. Preventing this incident will not prevent future incidents of corruption etc.

b. If 2c, then raising a family simply contributes more sinfulness to the world

i. If the character knowingly accepts 2c then adding more sin to the world is itself a sinful action

ii. If the character Young Goodman Brown was convinced every one else was or had the capacity to be inherently "evil" (Hawthorne 7) to some degree, remaining in and adding to the community the character is "suspicious" (Hawthorne 8) of and tried to distance himself from is inconsistent.

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4. If these actions are inconsistent with 2c, then there is reason to doubt that Young Goodman Brown (the character only, without drawing any conclusions about Hawthorne or attempting to imply or derive any conclusions about the author's motive or values) actually believed 2c

i. If the character Young Goodman Brown did not believe 2c, preventing the little girl from talking to Goody Cloyse (Hawthorne 8) becomes consistent because it implies the little girl's corruption is preventable

ii. If not 2c, then raising a family into a community the character distrusted does not necessarily remain inconsistent if the possibility they are not inherently evil remains plausible.

5. Conclusion

a. Either Young Goodman Brown does not fully believe 2c, in which case his actions become more consistent with one likely conclusion apparently drawn from the actions and direct speech of the characters in the story without any interpretation modern or otherwise, or

b. If Young Goodman Brown believes 2c, his actions (attempting to save the girl; raising a family; et al.) become inconsistent with 2c

c. 5a.....

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