Man’s Capacity for Evil
Have you ever really thought about where evil exists? On the surface, humanity appears noble and cares about doing the right thing. For instance, treating our neighbors with honor and respect, but humanity is also cursed with a sickness. Though slightly different methods, Nathaniel Hawthorne, in “Young Goodman Brown” and Shirley Jackson, in “The Lottery”, both determine that, while humanity represents oneself as gracious and admirable, underneath the surface an evil cancer resides in all of us.
Hawthorne shows in “Young Goodman Brown” that being blind and naive does not protect us from the evil in or around us. Young Brown points out, “we have been a race of honest men and good Christians, since the days of the martyrs”; while the devil promptly informs Brown that he “has been well acquainted with his family, as with every one among the Puritans”. The author is acknowledging that victimizing people on account of their ethnic origins or religious faith is evil. The people of the community who commit these acts are acting for the devil's service. Goodman Brown does not comprehend that as long as people act merciless and inhumanely toward those who do not comply with their Puritan ideal of righteousness, they assist the devil every day of their lives. When Goodman Brown strolled into the forest that night, he naively presumed that his community was pure in word, thought, and deed. The prospect that it was evil to destroy villages of Indians, torment followers of other beliefs and religions, or burn so-called witches never dawned on him. He thought that was what faithful Christians did to keep their status unsoiled. In relating these actions to the devil, the author is stating that being intolerant is evil. After Goodman Brown’s revelation, he is determined to be more righteous than his fellow Puritans, but his behavior makes him just as evil as everyone else and destroys his goodness. Goodman becomes a hypocrite and dies a lonely and...