The short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 during the Salem Witch Trials. The story was written and published in 1837 in Hawthorne’s “Twice Told Tales” shortly after Hawthorne’s graduation from Bowdoin College in Maine. Hawthorne’s main influences stem out of the New England Puritan culture. The Salem Witchcraft Trials and his puritan family background all shine through in his creation of this short story. One of his forefathers, Ju