Two Sides of the Same Coin: Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" vs. Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist

The conviction that the universe is centered upon complementary-opposing forces, is also an influential aspect of Nature-informed studies. Among the issues dealt with in ecocritical examinations of various texts, most have highlighted the necessity of the maintenance of the interdependent intricacies of different modes of being, the result of which is the legacy of unity and uniformity. The same end can be met if the focus is turned to a complete analysis of the two extremes of Nature, permeating certain literary texts. As for the purpose of this research, Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist have been chosen to show that through emphasizing the motif of journey and reaching ecoconsciousness the protagonists reach a turning point, leading them to the revelatory moment of self-realization. The findings of the research intensify the concentric aspect of the two agential dimensions of Nature as conjoined twins, noticeable in both works, acting, affecting, and transforming the protagonists in one way or another.

Keywords:

ecoconsciousness , ecophilia , ecophobia , ecoambiguity , ecolanguage , animism