My Essay Essay

No matter how faithful or how unfaithful anyone is, evil can always get the best of someone. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, Young Goodman Brown, the protagonist shows the audience just how manipulative evil can be to a helpless little soul, going as far possessing someone's mind into conjuring a situation (or not?) where everyone's evil side is shown. Goodman Brown is as faithful as anyone in his village is before walking into the forest for a night stroll, after encountering a fellow traveler, he comes out of the forest with a flipped mindset that has made him see all the evil from everyone else, including his faithful and innocent wife, Faith. He realizes that the world is not what it seems, evil lurks in the most deepest corners, and even right in front of your eyes, maybe even in you. Hawthorne communicates this theme with plot, symbolism, and characterization.


Characterization:

• old man; represents evil/the devil
• Faith; how someone so innocent can hide so much evil
•  Goodman Brown changes his demeanor and goes from being a faithful and kind guy, but after experiencing the "walk through the forest" he changes and has no trust in his fellow townspeople, he realizes that there is the chance that all of them could be hiding evil- loses faith in others/his wife (evilness is revealed?)

Symbolism:

• the old man's staff; represents a snake which is seen as an evil creature (sly, liar, manipulative/could persuade anyone and get in their head) (allusion: Garden of Eden, eve is tricked by the snake to eat the forbidden fruit)
• Faith's pink ribbons; represent purity and innocence when she first wears them in the beginning of the story but towards the end, when Goodman Brown is on his way back from his walk and is struggling with his doubts about the goodness of people he knows, the pink ribbons comedown from the sky into the evil place that he walks through (take the sky as Heaven and the forest with the old man as Hell) possibly symbolizing that Faith has lost her innocence

Plot(?):

• the fact that the whole story could've been a dream or possibly all of it is a dream created by Goodman Brown's mind shows that anything can be conjured by something "evil"
• it started off with Goodman Brown and Faith being faithful, innocent, and just over all good people but it ended with Goodman Brown doubting everyone and their loyalty to the good side after everything was exposed during the rising action when Goodman Brown met the old man (devil)