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Innocence Lost In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the word “innocence” as, “The quality or state of being innocent; freedom from sin or moral wrong” (Webster 984). In Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, there are multiple examples of innocence and innocence being lost. “Young Goodman Brown” is a tale of a man, Goodman Brown, who leaves his wife to venture into the woods. Goodman meets a man, who is later revealed to be the devil. Goodman was lured into a ceremony that held people from Goodman’s town. Brown was attracted to the ceremony by hearing his wife’s voice and seeing her pink ribbon floating through the air. This ceremony exposed that the people in Goodman’s community have all turned to the devil and are sinners. Goodman then woke

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