Young Goodman Brown
Young Goodman Brown is a story that spotlights on a man that has to choose between right and wrong, and good and evil. Towards the end, Goodman's journey from the village through the forest and back again is turned into a self assessment about his own faith, trust, innocence, and experience. The story is about a good young man struggling on his own spiritual path, which can be paralleled to any of our lives in which we are tempted and have personal struggles of our own. He leaves his familiar place promising his wife, Faith, that he will return after one night. Brown is faced with many obstacles leading him to the choice between good and evil. His vision, though not defined as reality or a dream, he sees people he knows, friends and family, heading towards evil, but in the end he is able to avoid being drawn into the dark evil side. This story basically portrays the simple and not so simple choices that people have to make daily and as they progress through their lives. The story displays choices and consequences that come as a result of making certain decisions. In the start of the story we meet Goodman Brown and his wife Faith who are saying their goodbyes to each other as Brown embarks on a journey t
The setting of this story is extremely important because every element in the story has to do with the mood of a character. If Brown is scared he sees everything as evil, but if he is in a calm state he views everything a safe and secure. This story basically highlights the power of faith, choice, and truth for us as people. Brown's vision might have been all in his head about the people around him, or it may even be the truth. If it is a dream his faith is actually gone because how can he love and believe if he can't even trust. If it is reality, Brown's own choices of rejecting evil make him a stronger person, and it doesn't affect the others around him. They are able to continue with their fake identities pretending to be innocent people, when they know that their comfort, support and love lie with the works of evil. The actual truth of Brown's vision will never be certain to us, the reader, but its simply a matter of the amount of faith the reader has in the village inhabitants and their innocence. The following day when Brown runs into his Faith, and his friends, he notices that they acted like they did before he went into the forest, which makes Brown question himself to whether or not he had a bad nightmare, or if it was indeed reality. Either way, he is affected for life, it was a sort of epiphany and his eyes are opened, and this nightmare or reality has changed his life forever. This experience hits him hard while showing him how powerful the truth can be, especially with people that are very close to him and us for that reason. By embarking on this expedition into the forest, Brown lost his faith, not only his religion and beliefs but also his wife, Faith. He lost his wife, not physically but emotionally and mentally. Brown can't take anything for granted with her and second guesses anything she may say or do, so in this he would feel that he lost a BIG part of his wife, Faith. This may just have been a test for him to decide how the truth and false accusations can affect one mans thought, and permanently chan
Some common words found in the essay are:
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Goodman Brown, Towards Goodman's, wife faith, forest brown, towards evil, particular story, lost wife, innocence experience, story basically, faith trust, brown runs, brown's vision,
Approximate Word count = 1376
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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