Research Paper

Davis 2

Comment by Sara Pate: Be aware of your spacing before your name/date/etc.

Shelia Davis

Professor Cobbs

English 202

October 26, 2020

Humanity’s dark side Comment by Sara Pate: Capitalize the first letter in each word in the heading.

The story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathanial Hawthorne was set in Puritan New England during the late 17th century. The Puritans had strict religious rules and punishments for all sinners. For example, twenty-five innocent people were killed in Salem village after they were accused of being witches. The Puritans pretended to be very religious, but they secretly committed many sins. The other story “The Tell-Tale of Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe arose out of the darker experience of 19th century American society and culture. It was first published in 1843. It described a murder that was committed by the narrator. In the short stories "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "Young Goodman Brown," the authors argue that human beings have an evil side, choose to do bad things, and eventually feel guilty about their actions. Comment by Sara Pate: The introductory material works well as an attention getter for me. The writers leads me into the topic and does not just drop me right into the thesis. Comment by Sara Pate: The main idea of the essay is explaining how even though people are nice and good people most of the time, they all have a deep dark evil side.

In "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "Young Goodman Brown," the narrators explain that all humans have an evil side. The narrator of "Young Goodman Brown" shows the evil side of all characters in the story. Even though all characters in the story are strong believers, they also engage in other activities that prove they also have an evil side. For example, Goodman Brown takes the journey to the dark forest and fails to listen to his wife. After returning to the village the next morning, everyone he passes appears evil. The journey to the dark forest represents the evil side of Goodman Brown. During his journey to the forest, he also meets religious leaders. He meets a woman who had taught him catechism. The presence of religious leaders in the dark forest shows that they still have an evil side. Fannie Cherry points out, “The society is evil as most people pretend to be religious but still engage in evil things” (343). Goodman Brown also meets his wife, Faith in the dark forest. Even though her name suggests a strong belief in religion, she also has an evil side proved by her surprise appearance in the dark forest. Goodman Brown is convinced that there cannot be good in the world if Faith has also turned to evil. Comment by Sara Pate: Each body paragraph has a topic sentence that directly relates to the thesis. They give a general outline of the paragraphs. They do not match the points of development. Comment by Sara Pate: Each paragraph should have a primary and secondary source. There is at not one citation per source. Each paragraph is about the topic sentence. The citations are not cited correctly.

In the story “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator himself has an evil side as he secretly plans to kill the old man. He observes the old man who is asleep for several nights. His actions of observing the old man at night and killing him prove that he has an evil side. The narrator has been seeing the old man for a long time, but he does keep evil plans on the man. The old man also has an evil side because the narrator sees his "evil eye". The evil eye made the narrator kill the old man because he was afraid of it. According to Kirkland, “the evil eye is not just a physical feature” (135). It is the name for the beliefs and practices that are based on the assumption that some people have the power to kill others by glancing at them. That shows the old man also had evil thoughts to kill other people. The narrator might have thought that the old man had plans of killing him. The narrator’s thoughts show that everyone has an evil side and people are likely to show it instead of their good side. Comment by Sara Pate: Entire essay is sequenced in an easy to follow order. The writer uses transitions and does not jump from one idea to another. Comment by Sara Pate: + Explaining that the evil eye is not just a physical feature but that people have the power to kill just by glancing is effective detail

The characters in both “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “Young Goodman Brown” choose to do bad things instead of choosing the right ones. Even though humans are presented with the right things to do, they often choose to do the wrong ones. Many people seem to enjoy doing bad things or sinning. The narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” chooses to kill the old man without a concrete reason for his actions. There is nothing that compels him to kill the old man other than his fears. The narrator spends so much time with the old man that one would not think he would kill him. “Human beings may choose to kill each other because of fear and jealousy” (Pearl, 98). The good thing would be to take care of the old man because he would need help at his old age. The narrator could also leave the old man alone if he saw the evil eye. However, the narrator chooses to kill the old man despite the fact that he is harmless. He also hides it from the policemen that he has killed the man. That shows he chooses to lie despite knowing that it is better to speak the truth to clear the matter. Comment by Sara Pate: You could have added more descriptive details about how he hid from the police – something to support this claim.

In “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown has to make a decision on whether to choose the right path or the wrong path. However, he chooses to follow the evil path. His wife tries to convince him not to take the journey to the forest, but he does not listen. Brown could have chosen the path of righteousness by following the teachings of his Puritanism religion. The puritans attended the church but did not have faith in God. Puritanical Calvinism is not a legitimate faith because men are innately evil and sinful. Having been taught catechism, one would expect that Brown and his wife Faith would live a righteous life. However, they ignore the religious teachings and choose to engage in sinful activities. The deacon and the minister are more interested in the evil things than good things. "I had rather miss an ordination-dinner than tonight's meeting" (Akçetin, 147). The minister and deacon meet Goodman Brown in the forest and that shows they are also engaged in evil activities. They value the meetings they attend in the dark forest than their church meetings. That proves the minister and deacon would also choose the evil things over the righteous ones. Comment by Sara Pate: + This is a good example that supports the main idea by explaining how evil men are but how they could have easily chosen the path of righteousness

In both “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “Young Goodman Brown,” the characters feel guilty about their evil ways. The narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” feels guilty for killing the old man. When the police officers arrive at the old man’s house, the narrator does not act suspiciously at first. However, he starts to feel uncomfortable and hears a ringing in his ears. According to Amir, "the narrator concludes that the ringing in his ears is the heartbeat of the old man" (2). He thinks that the policemen can also hear the heartbeat of the old man, but he is the only person who hears it. He confesses to the policemen that he had killed the old man. His guilt makes him confess to having killed the old man. The sound of the narrator's heartbeat has been interpreted as the guilty conscience that reminds him of his actions. He also feels guilty because the evil eye might have been an illusion. The narrator also claims that an invisible force might have acted on him and made him kill the old man. Comment by Sara Pate: + In this detailed information the narrator starts to feel convicted and eventually confesses. This is a good detail as it also explains how people are good but do evil things.

In "Young Goodman Brown," Goodman Brown feels guilty for taking the journey to the dark forest. The next day, he does not accept the minister’s blessings because he knows that he has already taken the evil path. Goodman Brown also feels guilty after meeting Goody Cloyse in the dark forests. Goody Cloyse was a respected person in the village. Goodman Brown is embarrassed as he walked in the dark forest by meeting other religious leaders. He is also unable to listen to the summon the next day he attends church because he is guilty of the sinful activities he chose. "On the sabbath-day, when the congregation was singing a holy psalm, he could not listen, because the anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear" (Levy, 380). Goodman Brown’s guilt also makes him avoid his wife and turn away during prayer. That is because he understands the path he chose does not match with what they are doing at home: praying. Comment by Sara Pate: We need to read more details about Goody and why she was a respected person.

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and Nathanial Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown" show that people engage in evil ways and eventually feel bad about it. Human beings are tempted to engage in evil activities by the devil. They should ensure that God's rules are strictly followed to avoid engaging in any evil activity. Those who go to church should not be tempted to engage in bad behaviors. There are negative repercussions for engaging in any sinful activity. For example, one is likely to feel guilty about his/her actions. To avoid facing the negative consequences, everyone has to avoid engaging in sinful activities. Comment by Sara Pate: I believe there oculd be more supportive detail from either stories in this paragraph that support your thoughts on sinful behavior.

Comment by Sara Pate: What I liked abou this essay is that it is easy to read. Not overly done and usage of words that wouldn’t typically be used in a sophomore English class and it is not boring.

Comment by Sara Pate: Two factors that the writer could work on are definitely citing, going through and really digging into the primary and secondary support and gettting supportive details. Also explaining your own thoughts on how you feel about humanitys dark side.

Comment by Sara Pate: Check spacing from top of page to beginning of (name/date/etc)

Comment by Sara Pate: Be sure that essay is complete 5 full pages as well as each paragraph is cited properly

Comment by Sara Pate: When ending the essay, I suggest using the page break feature before adding the works cited page to prevent a large gap in formating when turning in your paper

Works Cited

Akçetin, Nurhayat Çalişkan. "Evil as a Moral Problem." Current Topics in Social Sciences (2016): 147.

Amir, Shamaila. "Analysis of the Short Story'The Tell-Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe." The Creative Launcher 2 (2020).

Cherry, Fannye N. "The Sources of Hawthorne's" Young Goodman Brown." American Literature 5.4 (1934): 342-348

Connolly, Thomas E. "Hawthorne's" Young Goodman Brown": An Attack on Puritanic Calvinism." American Literature (1956): 370-375.

Kirkland, James. "The Tell-Tale Heart" as Evil Eye Event." Southern Folklore 56.2 (1999): 135.

Levy, Leo B. "The Problem of Faith in 'Young Goodman Brown'." JEGP: Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 74.3 (July 1975): 375-387

Pearl, Michael. Good and Evil: The Ultimate Comic Book Action Bible. No Greater Joy Ministries. 2016