It is a proven fact that what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom is that humans can make conscious decisions over their actions. Instead of relying on just survival instincts, humans act according to certain social norms that are influenced by culture and environment. Given this freedom of choice, human beings mold and adopt their own definitions of good and evil. As a result, mankind’s struggle between good and evil is a common theme in literature, history, and film. John Steinbeck asserts in his novel East of Eden that a person can only be deemed good or evil after his or her death. This claim is not true because good and evil are not separate entities. In order to be good, a person has to possess and recognize evil. Also,
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In the story, a young Puritan named Goodman Brown witnesses the good Christians in his town participating in a Satanist cult. After the ordeal, Brown is left disillusioned by his townspeople’s capacity for such evil, when he supposed they were upstanding and pious individuals. When Brown approaches the gathering of the townspeople, he notices “irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given overall mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes” (Hawthorne). Prior to his experience, Brown held that all people were only capable of moral good, demonstrating his naivety. In the end, Brown himself turns cold as a result of what he witnessed. His wife, eager for his return, “skipped along the street and almost kissed her husband before the whole village,” but “Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting” (Hawthorne). By allowing his experience with the townspeople to affect him, Brown shows a distant disposition toward his wife, thereby revealing his own capacity for evil. Brown’s transformation coupled with the fact that respectable people in his town associate with those who have committed crimes illustrate that good and evil can coexist within
In the story, a young Puritan named Goodman Brown witnesses the good Christians in his town participating in a Satanist cult. After the ordeal, Brown is left disillusioned by his townspeople’s capacity for such evil, when he supposed they were upstanding and pious individuals. When Brown approaches the gathering of the townspeople, he notices “irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given overall mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes” (Hawthorne). Prior to his experience, Brown held that all people were only capable of moral good, demonstrating his naivety. In the end, Brown himself turns cold as a result of what he witnessed. His wife, eager for his return, “skipped along the street and almost kissed her husband before the whole village,” but “Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting” (Hawthorne). By allowing his experience with the townspeople to affect him, Brown shows a distant disposition toward his wife, thereby revealing his own capacity for evil. Brown’s transformation coupled with the fact that respectable people in his town associate with those who have committed crimes illustrate that good and evil can coexist within