Americans have a deep interest with occult and dark forces. People surround themselves with literature, television, and movies about it. Many people are unsure whether it is wrong to love some of these stories so much or if it is just part of human nature to have a fascination with the unknown? Young Goodman Brown is one of the first examples of a dark twisted story about a mans encounter with the devil in the Puritan town of Salem.

Americans watch shows such as American Horror Story, Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf, and The Walking Dead which all deal with a dark realm of creatures. All of these are top shows that millions of Americans tune in to watch weekly.Also movies such as World War Z, Twilight, and The Haunting in Connecticut also deal with occult and dark story lines.  People enjoy the scares and twisted plots of an unknown world. People need an escape from reality which many find through occult shows and movies.

Hawthorne writes a piece of American literature called Young Goodman Brown about a mans encounter with the devil in the woods. His occult piece where witches in the town of Salem take part in a dark ceremony in the woods show how even over a hundred years ago people were fascinated by dark stories about the supernatural.

This shows that American culture is still largely surrounded by the occult in modern TV shows, movies and books. Young Goodman Brown was written in 1835 and had similar elements to modern entertainment which shows that things that fascinated us hundreds of years ago still interest us today. We will probably still be making movies and writing stories about the supernatural for years to come because everyone loves a dark mystery about the supernatural and occult.

Dexter Morgan from the hit TV show, Dexter, takes the law into his own hands. He is a forensic blood splatter analyst in Miami, Florida in the day, but by night he is a serial killer who murders criminals.In spite of being a killer he still loving to his sister and son.Viewers are unsure whether he is good or bad because he is a classic antihero who is a little of both, and he is very grey. He kills to help the world become a better place, but an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Another antihero who shares many traits with Dexter is Ichabod Crane. 

Both Dexter Morgan and Ichabod Crane are deceiving. Dexter Morgan acts like he kills murderers to do the moral and right thing, but in reality he murders others for his on pleasure. Similarly, Ichabod Crane justifies having mothers cook for him by being nice and sparing their children. Both Dexter and Ichabod are manipulative and deceiving to others around them for their own pleasure and needs.

Another characteristic Dexter and Ichabod share is being selfish. Dexter states it will be hard to balance his family and his need to kill, but he always manages to put his desire to kill first no matter how hard he tries. Similarly, Ichabod Crane is greedy and selfish as well because he only wants Katarina Van Tassel for her money. He only thinks about how to benefit himself. It is evident that both characters let their worst impulses take over before they think about others in their life.

Finally, Dexter Morgan and Ichabod Crane are both uncaring at times. Dexter's lack of social skills causes him to not think about what he is saying, and sometimes he is unaware of the consequences of what he says. Similiar to Dexter, Ichabod only cares about Katarina's inheritance. He lacks the morality of wanting to use someone for money and land. The way Dexter thinks and speaks, and Ichabod's actions both show their uncaring natures.

At first glance Dexter Morgan and Ichabod Crane seem like they have good intentions, but the further you look into who they are you realize it is much harder to determine if they are simply good or bad. They both are deceiving, selfish, and uncaring, but they posses other positive characteristics which make them more complex. They are not black and white people like most protagonists of many stories they are a unique type of individual called an anti hero.