story, “Young Goodman Brown”. “The tale becomes in great part, thus, a record of temptation” (Pualits 578-579). The author of “Young Goodman Brown”, Nathaniel Hawthorne, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. His family has a long standing history in Salem, as his relative John Hathorne was a judge in the Witch Trials. Soon after the trials a ‘w’ was added to the family’s last name to distance themselves from the horrors of the time (Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography). Set during
course of history, the behavior of humans have been highly questionable. Examples history textbooks display with factual evidence of monarchs slaughtering nations to conquer, people poisoning another for love, and betraying someone for one’s own selfish reasons. The mind blowing actions of past people, shows how human nature is not black and white but complex and complicated. In the stories “ The Lottery” and “ Young Goodman Brown” a character experiences sudden betrayal, which can help readers understand