Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne was an interesting story that reflected some of old Salem. Even though it did not take place during the 1600's, the story contained many of the same traits of the Salem witch hunts. At the time of the witch hunts, the grain in Salem was known to have grown a mold that produces L.S.D. This has explained many of the happenings during the witch hunts. In the Young Goodman Brown story the descriptions of Goodman Browns night in the forest resembles L.S.D. hallucinations. Even though Hawthorne had no way of knowing about the L.S.D. he was able to describe the hallucinations very well. He probably based his story on his knowledge of the witch hunts, and may have even believed the hallucinations to have been reality based.
I didn't really like this story. I didn't know that mold with characteristics of L.S.D. was used during the Salem witch trials. I always wonder how historians figure out things like this, and whether or not they're really true. There are other findings of drugs being used behind other catastrophic events in history. It is also said that Hitler was using drugs during the Holocaust. Which explains some of his actions, I think it'd be too frightening to know that people are capable of doing atrocities like these without them having some mind altering substance affecting their judgement. Maybe young goodman brown was on L.S.D. during his experience in the forest. For us to come to a conclusion that the character of young Goodman Brown in Nathaniel Hawthorne's story to have been hallucinating on LSD, I believe there would have to be evidence in history of Nathaniel Hawthorne having used LSD himself. If not then how would Nathaniel be able to describe such an experience? Just my thoughts.
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