In this essay I will describe the common theme of pride and the desire for discovery found in "Paul's Case" and "Young Goodman Brown". "Paul's Case" was written in the Naturalistic Period. This was a time when writings were often frank, crude, and tragic. It was also a time that naturalistic writers held that the characters of their works were merely higher - order animals whose behavior is entirely based upon heredity and environment. "Young Goodman Brown" was written during the Romantic Period. Romantic Theory includes the belief that self and nature are one. Development of the self was a major theme during this period. It was also a period where self awareness was not selfish, but a mode of knowledge opening up to the universe. Even though these stories were written in two different time periods and published 70 years apart they hold a lot of similarities between the two main characters.
             "Paul's Case" was written when literature characters were based on the belief that behavior is dependent upon heredity and environment. Paul's father was the impact on Paul to become who he was, a man of pride. Paul's father discussed the plan his corporation was considering of putting in an electric railway plant at Cairo with the guy who was referred to as, "the young man who was daily held up to Paul as a model, and after whom it was his father's dearest hope that he would pattern" (519). Paul, on the other hand, didn't dream of being a successful business man. He dreamt of living among the successful, eating with the successful, watching Broadway shows night after night but never once dreamt of working to fulfill his desires. Instead, Paul stole the money to live his dreams, even if it were for only a week. This ties in to the Naturalistic Period trends of writing; Paul was being frank and crude to his employers.
             ...