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Unformatted text preview: would be heartless. He has no children and has a miserable wife. He basically gets to pick who lives and who dies. Because he has no children and his relationship with his wife isn’t the best, I feel like its easy for him to run the lottery because he does not have anybody who he loves. Mr. Summer also likes do things his way. He seems to be stubborn. The Lottery has been a tradition for years. He changed the practice of using wood chips and started using paper and he 4 Running head: CHARACTERIZATION suggested that they get a new box to do the drawing with because the one the village has used forever is not in the best condition anymore. Although he seems hard-headed and better than everyone else we see that he must partake in the lottery like the rest of his fellow villagers. Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a man, Goodman Brown, who lives in Salem Village that goes on a journey through a gloomy forest. During his first few steps in the forest, he is fearful of what might be behind each tree. It could be Indians or the devil himself loitering there. Brown later runs into a man who greets him like he is expecting his arrival. The man was dressed in regular clothes and looks fairly normal, aside of the walking stick he carries. Brown says that the walking stick he carries has a carved serpent on it that looks very lifelike. So lifelike that it seems to move. Brown tells the man that his family has been Christians and good people for generations and that he is skeptical to associate with this man. The man tells Brown that he knows some of his family and even members of the churches in New England. Brown wants to return to his village for his faith’s sake and tells the man. During the conversation Brown hears a familiar voice coming from a woman. The woman was Goody Cloyse. Cloyse is a respected woman from the village who was extremely religious. She reveals to Brown that she is indeed a witch and that she is walking through the woods to attend the devil’s evil forest ceremony. Brown is shocked when he hears and sees other people from his village at the ceremony, including the Minister and Deacon. Overall, it is uncertain if Brown’s trip to the woods was real or a dream. He returns to Salem and lives the rest of his life in sadness and fear. He no longer can trust anyone in his village because he thinks they are evil. 5 Running head: CHARACTERIZATION Goodman Brown and the Devil are the two main characters throughout the story. Goodman Brown at first we see is a religious man with a lot of faith. But he seems to question it. He seems to not know his identity. He compares himself to others. In the story he says that his own father would have never went on this type of errand he was going on, “my father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him” (17). Goodman Brown is an observer. He is always just standing in the background when he sees other corrupt characters partaking in evil activities instead of taking action to make things right. He gave me the feeling that he is sort of irrational. His trip to the forest could have not been real. Is a possible nightmare you had worth living a life of fear and depression? The Devil’s characteristics are pretty obvious. He is vicious, manipulative and overall evil. He wants to tempt you to to believe everything is evil and that good does not exist. And that is exactly what he did to Goodman Brown. He told Brown that his ancestors practiced evil doings behind closed doors. He made Brown believe him when in all reality none of that could be true. Now that I have explained both stories and the traits of each main character, I have come to the conclusion that Tessie and Goodman are not alike at all. Tessie is self-centered and comes off as a careless mother. Goodman loves his family and wants the best for his town and for there to be no evil. Mr. Summers and the Devil are only alike in the sense that Mr. Summers is okay with killing people. He has that sort of darkness attached to him that the Devil has, but not as aggressive. Overall, the characters really were not largely similar, the only main aspect that was similar was the negativity that each story had; both had their own version of evil. References 6 Running head: CHARACTERIZATION Jackson, S., & Sandland, R. (1948). The Lottery . New York City, New York: The New Yorker. Hawthorne, N., & Connolly, T. E. (1968). Young Goodman Brown . Columbus, OH: C. E. Merrill. Kennedy, X., & Gioia, D. (n.d.). The Literature Collection an eText . 7...
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