Young Goodman Brown Questions

1. What do you think Hawthorne's purpose was for writing this story?

Hawthorne's purpose for writing the story was to show the audience that good and evil exists everywhere around us, even in places and people we least expect it.

2. Hawthorne states that Brown's wife is "aptly named" Faith. After reading the story, do you agree? Does Faith's name fit her personality? Does Brown have true faith in her?
After reading the story I do agree that Faith's name fit her personality quite perfectly. She was very innocent and kind. Brown doesn't have true faith in Faith at the end, he feels distant from her as he discovers that she was walking down the evil filled path too.

3. What do you think the pink ribbons signify?
I think the pink ribbon signifies Faith's false innocence that she showed too everyone.

4. Was everything Brown witnessed real, a figment of his imagination, something conjured by evil, or a dream? Support your answer with passages from the text.

Everything that Brown witnessed was a dream that he urgently wakes up from when he realizes what was proposed to him and his loyalty to his good deeds. In the story it states,"...it was a dream of evil omen for young Goodman Brown," this further shows that it was quite literally a dream he simply woke up from.

5. Who do you think the old man really was? What textual clues tell you this?
The old man was really the devil in disguise, simply supported by "...shaking himself so violently that his snake-like staff actually seemed to wriggle in sympathy." The way that the staff was described like a snake refers to how snakes are seen as evil, according to the story of how Adam and Eve were tricked mercilessly by a snake.

6. What does the staff represent? Do you think the staff leads Brown onward or is the primary motivator of Brown's own conscience/mind?
The staff represents the devil and it's evil ways of manipulating people to doing bad deeds. I think the staff is the primary motivator of Brown's own conscience/mind because it encourages Brown to continue further down the path and follow the fellow traveler to learn more about the secret evil deeds everyone has done.

7. If Brown had not ventured into the forest, how would his life be different? If he'd stayed home, would Brown still have Faith? Would he still trust his wife and his fellow townspeople?
Brown's life wouldn't be different, it would've been the same life he lived before he walked in the forest. If he stayed home, Brown still would've had Faith because he would have never discovered the facade she had, he would've still trusted his wife and his fellow townspeople because he would've never discovered any of their secrets.