Human Savagery in \"Young Goodman

¶ … human savagery in "Young Goodman Brown" and "Great Gatsby"

Nathaniel Hawthorne & F. Scott Fitzgerald

Nature has been one of the central themes utilized in literature throughout its history: its beauty and essence was elucidated in the period of Romanticism; it was also pitted against science in the age of Enlightenment and later, in the period of modernism. The theme of nature per se, however, is portrayed in an altogether different context. Nature is also used as a replica and mirror of the self, the state of the individual that is best illustrated through the state of nature. While life's beauty is reflected in the image of a bountiful and orderly nature, the loss of meaning in life is mirrored in the image of the wilderness. The wilderness is the state of nature that remained uncultivated and unexplored -- the wilderness in the life context, in effect, is the 'other self,' the self where the individual's innermost thoughts, feelings, and desires are found. Being in a state of wilderness is experiencing a loss of one's sense of direction, stumbling upon and discovering his/her 'other self' -- more meaningful, deeper, yet is the core of his/her true self.

This description of the wilderness is best illustrated in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne ("Young Goodman Brown") and F. Scott Fitzgerald ("Great Gatsby"). Using these two literary works, this paper's analysis centers on the role that nature, specifically wilderness, played in reflecting the true natures of Goodman and Gatsby, protagonists of Hawthorne's and Fitzgerald's works, respectively. This paper posits, then, that wilderness was a symbolic state used by Hawthorne and Fitzgerald to show the protagonists' realizations that they have lost their meaning in their respective lives. While Goodman's journey towards the wilderness was centered on testing his true faith in God, Gatsby's life in the wilderness that is New York uncovered his desperation and sadness in life despite his having a wealthy and prosperous life.

In "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne used the wilderness as the setting for Goodman's path towards discovering and testing his faith in God. The wilderness is described as a place where disorder prevails against civilization's mannered characteristic. Goodman's journey towards the wilderness is analogous to his journey towards self-discovery: the wilderness acted as Goodman's heart and mind where he found himself experiencing an internal conflict. This internal conflict was between his desire to become true to himself and his faith to God and conscious want to conform and prevent himself from deviating against the traditions that his rigidly conservative community imposes on its members.

Goodman's internal conflict was brought about by his realization that he was vulnerable and can easily succumb to the temptations of the devil. Being in the wilderness did not help Goodman prevent this conflict from happening within him, since the wilderness was obviously not a part of society but of nature, therefore, the wilderness only follows the laws of nature and not the laws of humanity. The wilderness acted as the agent that opened Goodman's mind to the true feelings hidden within his heart -- that Goodman is not the faithful individual known in his community, but is actually the person who questions whether he is indeed faithful to God. The process towards this realization was arduously contemplated: was the Evil the Salem Village's members, whose rigid and conservative belief in religion resulted to intolerance to people who do not share their beliefs? Or was the evil that Goodman witnessed in the forest his own fears -- fear of succumbing to evil, fear of being a sinful person?

The frailness of the human heart is embodied in the character of Goodman. Unfortunately, the disorder of the wilderness did not prepare him for the right path towards his self-discovery and reflection. Goodman had been too entrenched in the norms of his conservative society that he was unable to break himself from it when the wilderness gave him an 'image' of reality. Goodman interpreted the reality as the Devil, for he was unable to accept the fact that people can actually have weak faith in God -- that he, in fact, harbored a weak faith in God and strong tendency to succumb to evil.

His wife Faith is both a character and symbol that Hawthorne used that helped bridged Goodman's weak faith with his desire to become a firm believer and follower of his religion. He exclaimed in the wilderness, "Faith kept me back awhile...My Faith is gone!...There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come devil! For thee is this world given..." This passage reflected Goodman's surrender to the wilderness, to the state of disorder that made him discover that he is weak and sinful. The presence of Faith in the first part of the story was also the only time that Goodman felt his strong faith in God. However, upon entering the wilderness, Faith his wife had not only disappeared, but Goodman's faith in God (and even himself) as well. Hawthorne made readers realize that human nature is in fact "naturally savage," and it is only fitting that Goodman's inherently savage nature would be discovered and uncovered (by him) in the wilderness.

Even towards the end of the story, Hawthorne continued to haunt his readers with the theme of wilderness inherent in the hearts and minds of humanity. Posing the question, "Had Goodman Brown fell asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?," Hawthorne was actually creating disorder in the minds of his readers, making them also question whether Goodman's confrontation in the wilderness was an illusion or not. This unanswered question unsettled the ending of the story, leaving Hawthorne's readers groping in the "wilderness" of interpretation, just as Goodman had been lost in the wilderness of his heart and mind.

Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby" used a setting far less rustic and disorderly as Hawthorne's wilderness in "Young Goodman Brown." Fitzgerald's portrayal of the wilderness in his novel was the harshness of society towards individuals who deviate from its standards of conformity in terms of beliefs and values in life. Wilderness is metaphorically portrayed between the conflicting natures of the East Egg and West Egg regions of New York City. Social inequality was the dilemma presented in the novel, a problem in the American society that reflected how, despite the improvement in civilization, humanity did not leave its savage nature. Savagery is mirrored in the conflict between the old rich and "noveau riche" members of the society -- people from the East and West Egg regions, respectively.

The wilderness (social conflict) in the civilized natures of both regions was explicated by Nick in the novel, where he stated, "I lived at West Egg, the -- well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them." This interesting observation by Nick showed how, despite the seemingly more sophisticated nature of the East Egg residents, they are actually part of the 'urban wilderness' of the city, where disorder originated from their intolerance to individuals who were able to go up the social ladder, achieving the level or even surpassing the 'old riches' people of the society.