Young Goodman Brown 2

A detailed Summary of Young Goodman Brown 2

Life is, and always has been, a battle between good and evil. From the time we are small children, we are taught the differences between wrong and right, between bad and good. Nathaniel Hawthorne recognized this eternal battle, and his short story "Young Goodman Brown" is an excellent example of what a battle it can be. Central to this battle is the factor of good, in this case, the factor of Faith. While Faith is the name of Young Goodman Brown's wife, she becomes the symbol for all that is holy and pure in a town filled with evil. The flowing pink ribbons in her hair are the ultimate symbol of that purity. From beginning to end, they represent the faith that Young Goodman Brown fights so hard to preserve.

Hawthorne makes it a point to let the importance of the pink ribbons be known to the reader from the beginning of the story. In the first passage, we are introduced to Faith, the wife of Young Goodman Brown. "...Faith...thrust her pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap..." (196). From this line, one can imagine a beautiful young woman, filled with innocence. The way the wind plays with the ribbons suggests they are light and free, flowing in a gentle breeze. Hawthor

As Young Goodman Brown ventures deeper and deeper into the forest of evil, he begins to realize what a mistake he has made. He makes feeble attempt after feeble attempt to turn around and go back to his lovely Faith. His dark companion leads him further yet into the forest, and he comes across Goody Cloyce, a saintly old woman, or so he thought her to be. It was upon seeing her journey into sin that Goodman Brown puts his foot down and refuses to go deeper into the forest. Before he can prepare to make his return, however, he hears more voices - voices of the minister, of the Deacon, and of countless churchgoers. He is in complete disbelief that these people, who share praises in God every Sunday, could be partaking in the evil set to occur that night in the forest. Just at the moment where he wants nothing more than to escape the evil and return to his Faith, something unbelievable happens: "There was one voice of a young woman...with an uncertain sorrow...[and] saints and sinners seemed to encourage her onward" (202). Goodman Brown recognized his wife's voice and screams for her, "in a voice of agony and desperation" (202). Her reply was "a scream, drowned immediately in a louder murmur of voices" (202), which fades into silence. In utter confusion, with the knowledge that his beloved Faith is among these sinners, Goodman Brown waits in shock. Has his Faith become one of them? He soon receives the answer to that question. "Something fluttered lightly down through the air, and caught on the branch of a tree. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon"(202). The pink ribbon, which epitomizes everything good and pure about Faith, has been stripped from her head. Without her shroud of purity, she is vulnerable to the evils that lurk in the forest. Goodman Brown becomes m

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Approximate Word count = 1218
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels