Young Goodman Brown
What is a person supposed to do when those he looks up to for guidance turn out to be hypocrites and frauds? Nathaniel Hawthorne was undoubtedly scarred growing up in an environment where his father (Judge Hathorn of the Salem Witch Trials), the man he looked to for moral, spiritual, and all around parental guidance was responsible for the death's of countless people. Hawthorne conveys his anguish in his short story "Young Goodman Brown," wherein he parallels the actions of his father, and his own journey through life to the journey of Goodman Brown by utilizing countless literary symbols. Hawthorne begins his use of symbolism in the title of the story. "Young" implies two things about the character. First off young implies naive, which can be seen in the main character's initial perception of all the people in his town as good and righteous, very inhuman-like. Secondly, young implies that he is
innocent, pure from sin and from corruption. Goodman is a rather palpable allusion to the fact that he is, in fact, a "good man" The most obscure reference in the name is "Brown". In Christian art and literature, brown is a color symbolic of spiritual death and degradation, obviously foreshadowing the protagonist when his journey is through. This is how Hawthorne sees himself as a young man: innocent and jaded, which is only destined to be changed through his ultimate realization of the unspoken truths in both his religion and his life. The most important character that Brown encounters in this story is man in the woods, an obvious representation of the devil. The man carries a black snake staff, the snake symbolic of the devil, and the black symbolic of death. When the man offers Goodman Brown the staff, it is as if the devil is giving him a chance to exchange his soul for the devil's assistance. The most interesting thing abou
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Approximate Word count = 636
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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