Nathaniel Hawthorne Innocence Lost - 1950 Words

Innocence Lost My Kinsman, Major Molineux and Young Goodman Brown present Nathaniel Hawthornes belief in the universality of sin. These works provide numerous perspectives into the nature of the human condition and the individuals role within it. Hawthorne fictionalizes a world where communion with man is essential for spiritual satisfaction. The main characters of these stories face moral dilemmas through their pursuit of human communion. Whether the problems are moral, psychological, or both, Hawthorne insists that the individual must come to affirm a tie with the procession of life, must come to achieve some sense of brotherhood of man. In order to commune with mankind, one has to give up a secure, ordered and innocent world.†¦show more content†¦An alliance in evil creates a brotherhood of mankind. This is a sinister notion. Hawthorne defines the evil of the human soul as the universal mark of mankind, thus the only communion available to lonely hearts is evil. Once communi on with your fellow brother takes place, the celebration or the torment begins. When one recognizes sin and communes in sin the options that are left for the individual are simple but divisive. Robin laughs at the site of his fallen kin. It is this irony that affirms his communion with the very crowd he fears. He enjoys the site of a fallen man, as a part of an inevitable cycle men cannot escape. Man is mortal; whose nature is his very ruin. Hawthorne accounts another option to the celebration. Young Goodman brown communes and sees the weakness of his communities leaders. The very process of communion takes on a carnival atmosphere where all are welcome as long as they do not disdain the fraternal sin. By clinging hypocritically to a simplistic morality, Brown loses his chance to enter humanity. Goodman browns empty life serves as a kind of justification of for Robins entry into the procession, hard and discordant as the procession is. Hawthorne offers this sort of negative argument over and over again. One must affirm life, hard and sin laden though it may be sometimes, because the alternative,Show MoreRelatedShort Story Analysis: Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne851 Words   |  3 Pagesï » ¿Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne Introduction Hawthornes short story Young Goodman Brown is a tale of innocence lost. Set in New England during the Puritan era, the protagonist, Goodman Brown, goes for a walk in the woods one night and meets the devil who tells him. Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, to the communion of your race. According to Levin this story is a condemnation of the hypocrisy of the puritan ethic. The Salem witch trialsRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter1230 Words   |  5 Pages Nathaniel Hawthorne is an American novelist, who writes and focuses on sin, punishment, and atonement. However, he mainly focuses on the Puritan legacy. Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. From 1825-1837, Hawthorne perfected his writing and spent this time to help generate ideas for his novels and poems. One of the most well known novels by Nathaniel Hawthorne is â€Å"The Scarlet Letter.† The Scarlet Letter helped Hawthorne’s career to become one of the most successful of hisRead MoreThe Use of Color Symbolism by Nathaniel Hawthorne Essay1024 Words   |  5 Pagessymbolism that it captivates the reader to the extent of paralleling the tale with their own life? The principle of symbolism is quite evident in the story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†. Nathaniel Hawthorn’s work is immersed with symbolism with most of it deriving from his Puritan beliefs. The themes of sin, guilt, innocence, and lust come forth th rough the uses of color symbolism as well as visual clues. All of these things are dealt with in everyday life in modern America. â€Å"HisRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter1631 Words   |  7 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne is famous for his works that revolve around the Puritan society. The Puritans were very stringent in the way they dealt with rules and ways of life, and Hawthorne does an exceptional job depicting the Puritan lifestyle through his stories. Though many principles from Puritan society has made its way to form the present day American society, Hawthorne might disagree and did not believe that the good attributes originated from Puritan ways. Nathaniel Hawthorne, through the worksRead MoreA Crisis of Faith in Salvation, by Langston Hughes and Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne1175 Words   |  5 Pages In ï ¿ ½Salvationï ¿ ½ by Langston Hughes and ï ¿ ½Young Goodman Brownï ¿ ½ by Nathaniel Hawthorne there is a crisis of faith was present in both stories. Although both of the stories are very similar, they also are very different, too. In both stories, the main character experiences a loss of innocence through a faith crisis. The outcome of the loss of innocence in ï ¿ ½Young Goodman Brownï ¿ ½ was both positive and negative and in ï ¿ ½Salvationï ¿ ½ entirely negative. The faith crisis affected the way Goodman BrownRead More Essay on Symbols, Symbolism, and Allegory in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown726 Words   |  3 Pagestechnique that is used to clarify the authors intent. Sometimes it is used to great effect, while other times it only seems to muddle the meaning of a passage. In Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses objects and people as symbols to allegorically reveal his message to the reader. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses different people as symbols throughout Young Goodman Brown. The largest symbolic roles in the story are goodman Brown and his wife Faith. Both of the characters names are symbolicRead MoreSymbolism In Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Benjamin Goodman Brown995 Words   |  4 PagesYazan Al Khairy Michael Mendoza ENC1102 12/11/2017 Nathaniel Hawthorne is taken into account to be one in every of the greatest Americas anti-transcendental writers. Redolent symbolism and psychological inquiring into the darker sides of human heart, particularly guilt and sin ar the specialities of his writings. . Young Benjamin David Goodman Brown being the author’s one of the most vital short stories during which his preoccupation with the results of guilt and sin ar combined withRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown989 Words   |  4 Pages Olivia Kim AP Literature Short Fiction Essay In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1835 allegorical, short fiction â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† innocent, young Puritan of Salem Village, young Goodman Brown willingly leaves his wife and religion Faith and enters the dark forest, where he experiences a radical encounter that alters his ways of life. Throughout this short story â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† Hawthorne reveals man’s inherent nature to stray and sin, due to man’s corruption of morality. Human fallibility, evenRead MoreBiography of Nathaniel Hawthorne 1123 Words   |  5 PagesThe tall and mysterious Nathaniel Hawthorne is a man of little understanding. We know him for being very secluded and alone much of the time. We also know he had many secrets that may have accounted for the gloomy tone in his novels. He was a writer who did not believe in the game of small talk and enjoyed losing himself to a world of this own creation. Many people might have thought that Hawthorne came off as rude and uninte resting, but they had no idea of the masterpieces that laid inside his headRead MoreSymbolism In Young Goodman Brown960 Words   |  4 PagesIn the short story â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† the author Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the fragility of humans when it comes to their morality. Goodman Brown goes on a journey through the forest with the devil to watch the witches’ ritual and observes the evil in the Puritan society. He loses his faith as he sees the people he respects the most participating in the sinful ritual. Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes setting, and symbolism in his short story â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† to show how a person’s perspective

Essay about Transcendentalism in Literature - 1019 Words

The New England Renaissance brought out two distinct, yet influential movements known as transcendentalism and anti-transcendentalism. The two concentrated on intuition and human nature and formed a revolt against previously accepted ideas such as Calvinist orthodoxy, strict Puritan attitudes, ritualism, and the dogmatic theology of religious institutions. Transcendentalism is a term rooted back to Plato, a Greek philosopher who first affirmed the existence of absolute goodness, which he characterized as beyond something of description and as knowable only through intuition. He laid the tracks down for others to build off of. The Scholastic philosophers were the first to add to Platos theory during the middle ages. They came up†¦show more content†¦The belief that basic truths of the universe lied beyond our senses was one such belief. Others included the fact that we know, through intuition, that reality lies beyond the physical world, and that everything is symbolic i n spirit, making mature the place to find oneself. The groundwork for these beliefs and views can be seen in Deism (with the opposition of Calvinist orthodoxy) and in Romanticism (self-examination and individualism). As stated above, several authors led the transcendental movement, but none were as influential as Emerson and Thoreau. They are the writers that you hear about in all the definitions of transcendentalism and in the flowering of New England. Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, philosopher, and poet. He was born on May 25, 1803 and died on April 27, 1882. He graduated from Harvard in 1821 and was the youngest member of his freshmen class there at the age of 14. IN 1829, he was ordained as a Unitarian minister, and left three years later because of his differences with the religion. After traveling in Europe he published Nature, an outline of his transcendental views, in 1836. A major accomplishment of his life was the publishing of his two series of Essay s, which the world-renowned Self-Reliance essay was published in 1841. ...That imitation is suicide is a quote from Self-Reliance that shows theShow MoreRelatedTranscendentalism in Henry David Thoreau and Emily Dickinsons Literature984 Words   |  4 Pagesknow what transcendentalism was he should empty his mind of everything coming from tradition and the rest would be transcendentalism† (Boller 34). This literary period has dramatically shaped literature and religion, in America. Many writers like Henry David Thoreau and Emily Dickinson have been influence by transcendental ideas. It is astonishing how an inspiring literature movement can change so much of the world’s view and still is around today. Transcendentalism was an American literature movementRead MoreTranscendentalism, Realism, Naturalism, And Existentialism- Shaped The Advancement Of American Literature1486 Words   |  6 PagesTranscendentalism, Realism, Naturalism, and Existentialism- shaped the advancement of American literature. They were considered to be theoretical and political philosophies which held important positions in the development of modern literature. The original authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Lawrence Sargent Hall, and Jerome David Salinger, presented works inspiring new perspectives and social outlooks upon reality and it’s offerings. Through characterizing the progress of the philosophiesRead MoreEarly American Transcendentalism1204 Words   |  5 PagesEarly American transcendentalism has one of the greatest influences towards American society because it is not only a philosophy, but also a religion and physical progression. During the early nineteenth century, Ralph Emerson, Henry Thoreau, and other radical individuals challenged the present day theories of values, ethics, and what it means to live life to the fullest (Timko). If early American transcendentalists were living among civilians today, would present day civilians think the earlierRead MoreTranscendentalism And Its Impact On Society964 Words   |  4 PagesTranscendentalism began around 1836 in New England. The transcendentalist believed that society and its organized institutions were corrupting the purity of individuals. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was a famous transcendentalist that wrote â€Å"Where I Lived, and What I Lived For†. In this literature Thoreau argues that people need to simplify their lives and enjoy it. Transcendentalism played a big role back then and is a big deal even today as is it still relevant in our time period. In the literatureRead MoreThe Time Period Of Transcendentalism1278 Words   |  6 Pagesperiod of transcendentalism changed the views of many people through setting different principles otherwise known as tenets. These tenets I am going to focus on is: confidence, self-reliance, free thought, nonconformity, and the importance of nature. Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement in the 1800’s where people responded to the strict rules back then. They declared that they didn’t have to follow all of the rules and decided to go off of independent tenets. Many pieces of literature containRead More Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau as Fathers of Transcendentalism730 Words   |  3 Pagesas Fathers of Transcendentalism Transcendentalism was a movement in writing that took place in the mid-nineteenth century. It formed in the early to mid nineteenth century and reached it climax around 1850 during an era commonly referred to as the American Renaissance, America’s Golden Day, or the Flowering of New England. The basic tenets of Transcendentalism involve the relationships between one’s self and the world at large. First, the search for truth in Transcendentalism begins withRead MoreThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain628 Words   |  3 Pages Transcendentalism can be observed throughout the text of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and through the text textbook examples of Transcendentalism can be seen from the cast of characters and Huck himself and the situations/adventures that he gets himself into throughout his journey, a journey which enables him to develop his Transcendental ideals.. Transcendentalism is a vital part of The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. By reading and studying the content of the Adventures of HuckleberryRead MoreTranscendentalism And The American Renaissance1693 Words   |  7 PagesThe American Renaissance was a revolution for literature and writers in America itself that emphasized cultural authority. The American Renaissance took place throughout the nineteenth century, primarily in the early segment of this era. According to, The Norton Anthology of American Literature, â€Å"the idea of American Renaissance has been so influential in part of the literature of this time period , and was crucial to the development of American literary traditions† (4). This created a diverseRead MoreEssay on Transcendentalism vs. Anti-Transcendentalism778 Words   |  4 PagesIn the mid-1830s, Ralph Waldo Emerson created a belief called Transcendentalism. He wrote the essay, â€Å"Self Reliance† and Henry David Thoreau, another Transcendentalist wrote an essay called, â€Å"Walden.† Both works of literature focus on the Transcendentalism belief. In â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne reveals both Transcendentalism and Anti-Transcendentalism through the attitudes of the characters. Therefore, â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† can be compared and contrasted withRead MoreEmily Dickinson And Walt Whitman1719 Words   |  7 PagesIn American literature there are many types of themes and periods of writing. Each writer has their own style and way of conveying what they want to say to their readers. A lot of time what and how an author writes comes from how they grew up and the experiences they have had. They find a way to insert themselves and their emotions into words that move the readers in some way. One of the most popular periods of writing would be the romanticism era. Some of the most well known authors in this time

A theology or philosophy of education Free Essays

Education is an essential part of our lives. Without education we fail to understand the greater meanings of life. True education does not only contain achievement of academic degrees. We will write a custom essay sample on A theology or philosophy of education or any similar topic only for you Order Now It involves learning the meaning of life and the greater virtues of life and unless we understand the virtues and the philosophies of life we will not be in a position to intake the academic knowledge fully. In order to get proper education it is necessary that we get a true mentor who will strive to imbibe the philosophies of life into our minds. A mentor is able to impart academic knowledge only when he or she prepares the mind of students philosophically and morally. Moreover a mentor or an instructor should always walk in the path of virtue. Getting deviated from the path makes him unfit for teaching a bunch of young men. This paper aims to look at the various theories of life and the value of virtues in life and hence tries to relate it with teaching. It tries to focus on the fact that a mentor should believe and follow some theories while he or she is instructing the students. The paper also has tried to tell how the teachers should help their students to understand the meaning of their lives and also guide them in the true path of religion. The main aim of the paper remains in pointing out the role which an educator should play in order to bring about over all human development so that the society is able to get more number of sensible citizens who will adhere to the path of righteousness. There are actually many theories and many views of virtue which can be incorporated by an educator while imparting knowledge to the students. For instance The Divine Command Theory states that morality is associated with God’s commands. Divine Command Theory focuses that anything not approved by God is immoral. Therefore it actually tries to say that we must all carry out acts those are approved by the God. For example torture is an act not approved by the God hence we can say that torture is an immoral act. The theory is of prime importance because it gives us a reason as to why we need to be moral in our lives. An important thing which we tend to believe from the theory is that only the persons who are morally upright secure happiness in their lives. Hence we can say that with the help of the Divine Command Theory we get directed towards the path of morality. (Austin, 2006). As an instructor or a mentor we can take cue from this theory and try to imbibe the virtue of morality into their minds. We can use it by making our students understand that the ultimate aim of our lives should be morality. Unless we lead a moral life we will not be in a position to achieve happiness. It should be our attempt as a facilitator to make the students realize that unless they adhere to the path of morality they will not be able to get the blessings of the Almighty and in turn will not be able to get success in their lives. Incorporating of this theory into the teaching curriculum is important because unless the students are moral by nature they will not be able to take in the academic lessons properly. They will also not be able to use the lessons learnt in their future lives unless they have a moral foundation in them. The theory of virtue ethics is in close association with the Christian philosophy of ethics. The virtue theory is teleological in nature that is true human nature involved in true human good. The virtue ethics is of tripartite structure. It contains firstly human-nature-as-it-exists. Secondly it consists of human-nature-as-it-could-be. And the third element consists of all those habits, desires, perceptions which will transport human from one stage to the other stage. The virtue ethics focuses on the fact that there are certain habits and desires in human beings which prevent our journey towards a true human nature. Thus it is clear that in order to achieve the true good of our lives we may have to renounce certain habits of our lives. The theory deals with the journey from the stage of who we are to what we could be. It goes on to say that human nature is worth only when it is a good human nature and in order to become a good human nature it is absolutely necessary that we carry out functions which are true in nature and which adds to the true well being of humans. Therefore according to this theory we are permitted to carry out only those acts which contribute to the well being of the people and at the same time keep away from those which are not considered as true acts.(Kotva, 1997). Thus we can say that even the theory of virtue ethics can be incorporated within our teaching curriculum. That is we can make the students understand that the ultimate goal of life is well being and well being is only possible when we carry out true acts. True acts in the sense those acts which are virtuous in nature. We should also encourage the students to give up all those acts which are not true acts that are all those acts which do not contribute to the well being of man. In this way we can direct the students towards proper acts and keep them away from all ill acts. It is necessary to guide the students in such a direction because unless they carry out acts which are true by nature they will be unable to use their academic learning’s in proper channels. Instead they may use all their academic learning’s for accomplishing acts which are not proper. Hence it is very necessary to develop a moral guard in them right from their tender years so that they do not even get the desire to undertake an act which is improper. According to John Stuart Mill utilitarianism is basically the measure of human action based on the consequence received by that action. He was of the opinion that any human action which produces happiness among the human beings is a morally correct one. On the other hand an action which fails to generate human happiness is termed as morally wrong. Therefore according to Mill all human actions should be directed towards generating human happiness. Rather it should be the goal of all human beings to bring in happiness to others and not to one self.(West). Taking cue from the theory of J.S. Mill we can go further to say that the essence of utilitarianism is to maximize social welfare. We can take the happiness of others in a collective form and refer to it as the common good of the society. Thus according to the theory we can say that our ultimate aim should be to bring in the overall welfare of the society through our actions. Utilitarianism can be synonymous with â€Å"welfarism†. Therefore using utilitarianism we can say that all individuals are given an equal status as because a common good of the society has been mentioned. Unless all individuals are given an equal status they will not have a common welfare. Thus utilitarianism also incorporates egalitarianism.(Roemer, 1998). Even the theory of utilitarianism can be of much help in imbibing values within the students. We can use the theory to make the students understand that the aim of all our actions should be to secure happiness of others. Our actions should not be directed by self interests. By happiness of others it means that we should teach the students to work for the common good of the society because if we do not put effort for the betterment of our society we will also not achieve any betterment in our moral lives. Moreover the ultimate goal of education remains self-enlightenment and that enlightenment do not involve seeking happiness for the self but it comprises bringing in positive transformation of the society through our knowledge and education. Therefore it is a must that the students are made to realize the true purpose of education at a very early stage. It is necessary to make the students realize that the purpose of their education is a great one otherwise they in the later stages of life will not be able to do justice with their education. How to cite A theology or philosophy of education, Papers