The role of nature and "the wilderness" is a prevalent theme appearing time and again in many pieces of American Literature. The wilderness is a major aspect of both Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative as well as Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown." The theme the wilderness plays in these two works has some similarities yet is very different. In Mary Rowlandson's work, it is a place that mainly houses life and goodness. The wilderness is where many tribes live; it is an aspect of everyday life for many people. However, in "Young Goodman Brown" it is a dark place of evil and death. In this work, the wilderness is where many lies and deviances begin and also a place where these lies are revealed. The Wilderness is the home of the devil and is a site of many deaths and much evil. The wilderness can represent many different things in literature. Here we have two works in which the wilderness represents two separate and distinct themes.
             In "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne the wilderness is a site of darkness and evil. In this work, the Wilderness is the home of the devil and his followers. It is where they meet to convert people into Satanism and where they plan and reveal all their crimes. The wilderness is also the foreground of centuries of lies and deviances. We learn many things from Brown's trip through the wilderness. We learn that his conceptions of the people living in his town, as well as his view of his ancestors, are both very misguided. Brown says: "My father never went into the woods on such an errand...We have been a race of honest men and good Christians." (Hawthorne, 615) To this, the devil responds by saying "I have been well acquainted with your family...I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman...it was I that brought your father a pitch knot, kindled at my hearth, to set fire to an Indian village..." (615) Brown wants to believe that t...