Young_Goodman_Brown

Young Goodman Brown 'Young Goodman Brown' is a story about a Puritan's dream of predetermination written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ms. Buehler stated in class that most Puritans dreamed about predetermination and whether they were chosen for Heaven or Hell. Puritan belief in predetermination is, 'God decided who would be saved or damned before the beginning of history' (Wu). Some question if Goodman dreamed of, or truly met, Satan. 'Young Goodman Brown' was nothing more then a dream. At the time in which this story was set, Puritans lived with the stress of predetermination. Witch trials were still fresh in Puritan minds, and religious hypocrisy added to their stressful existence. Puritans prayed, calling their actions hypocrisy in their Divine Support Prayer. (Bennett) Mental stress could have been cause for Goodman to dream, and believe it to be reality. Imagination can cause us to believe something is real, even if it is not. People have been known to think a dream was real. Proof of such was presented by Ms. Buehler, who relayed a phone call from her mother. Ms. Buehler's mother called after having dream, goodman, predetermination, pink, faith, brown, young, puritans, stress, ribbon, real, ms, mother, hypocrisy, hawthorne, goodmans, dreamed, charters, story, stated, ribbons, religious, puritan, nathaniel, mental, father, evil, during, dreams, cause, cap, buehler, believe, before, been