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How Does Nathaniel Hawthorne Use Symbols In Young Goodman Brown

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After reading “Young Goodman Brown,” it becomes apparent to the reader that the author uses symbolism, the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. One will find symbolism being displayed in most Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories. In the short story Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism in various ways. When thinking about the color pink, what comes to mind? Pink has always been associated with girlishness and righteousness. Even for Puritans, pink represents innocence. In this story, Young Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith, wears pink ribbons. “Then God bless you!” said Faith, with the pink ribbons, “and may you find all well, when you come back (4).” This sentence shows how caring she is towards her husband, even when he is going off to do a task that she does not approve of. The pink ribbons symbolize her innocence, yet when she is in the forest, she does not have them anymore. Faith not having the pink ribbons in the forest means that she has lost her virtue. In the end of the story she has the pink ribbons in her hair again, so the author is trying to tell us that she is pure again. Throughout the story, Faith’s innocence is represented by whether she is wearing the ribbons in her hair …show more content…

A snake is one of the few animals that people correlate with the devil. That is no different in the story “Young Goodman Brown.” Young Goodman Brown meets a traveler in the forest who carries a staff that is shaped like a snake. “But the only thing about him, that could be fixed upon as remarkable, was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake (13).” The staff strongly suggests the man’s supernatural and sinful nature, and it connects “Young Goodman Brown” to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. When the devil tells Goodman Brown to use the staff to travel faster, Young Goodman Brown takes him up on the offer and, like Eve, is condemned for his

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Faith, Young Goodman Brown’s wife name is a symbol of her personality. “Faith, as the wife was aptly named,” (Brown 619) is emblematic to her nature. A symbol that is used more than once would be the pink ribbon. “…thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap,” (Brown 620). Faith has a connection to the pink ribbon because the ribbon is a symbol of purity and innocence, which she was.

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Conveying Symbolism Through Theme In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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When one thinks of the color pink, our minds are usually drawn to innocence or purity. In Young Goodman Brown, Faith’s pink ribbons are mentioned on various occasions. “Faith thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap” (P. 1, paragraph 2, Young Goodman Brown) This leads us to associate her character with youthfulness and happiness. When Goodman Brown sees

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Hawthorne writing price also includes symbolism, and point of view, which switch from third person limited to objective. One example of symbolism includes Faith's pink ribbons.the pink ribbons represent Faith’s innocence, and once Goodman Brown sees them falling from the sky onto the dark woods, he realizes that her innocence are no longer and she has sinned. The theme of the story can be label as Guilt vs. Innocence. As stated in the text "So they parted; and the young man pursued his way, until, being about to turn the corner by the meeting-house, he looked back, and saw the head of Faith peeping after him, with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons. " this represents the lost of

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Imagery In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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Hawthorne says, “Something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree” Faith’s pink ribbons symbolize purity. In the beginning of the story was Faith had her ribbons she was pure but at the end of the story when Young Goodman Brown saw Faith’s pink ribbon come down from the sky it represents how she succumed to evil and Hawthorne lost both his faith and his wife Faith. The third example of how Hawthorne uses symbolism to show the theme good versus evil in the story “Young Goodman Brown” is when the devil is telling Brown and Faith that they will have a new perspective of life, a life where everyone sins. In the beginning of the story Young Goodman Brown saw his family as godly and he saw Faith as pure but the devil shows him that his views are naive and the devil gives him the capability to see the dark side of everything and everyone.

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In the story of Young Goodman Brown, Brown is shown to have immense faith for both his religion and those in his puritan community, but throughout the story there were many events that led him to start questioning the people he believed in. For example, when Brown was in the forest with the old man, the old man mentioned that he had helped his father and his grandfather commit terrible deeds like burning down an Indian village and whipping a Quaker woman in the streets. Another example is when Brown saw his catechism teacher Goody Cloyse lurking around in the dark forest as if she had done this before. Another character, his wife, he has shown tremendous respect for and she specifically is symbolic of faith and innocence because of her pink ribbons and her kind and loving young demeanor. But

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In Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown" it can be described as a moral allegory that illustrates the puritan doctrine of inherent depravity as the Brown. He tests his faith by entering the forest primeval by joining the man "of grave and decent attire" for an evening in the wilderness. It is apparent the symbols are of a religious nature. Hawthorne wrote in the time period known as the Romantic Period. Hawthorne's rejection of the Puritan belief system is the primary message of this story.

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As he sees the town minister and Deacon Gookin headed into the black mass, he is surprised and slightly shaken up but he responds with, “‘ With Heaven above, and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil ’” Again, showing his determination to remain in faith. Goodman Brown continues to see many important religious figures in his community make their way to the black mass meeting and faith begins to wane. His faith is fully destroyed when he finds his wife's pink ribbon on the ground in the forest. Again Goodman Brown's wife is used to symbolize his own faith: “‘ My Faith is gone!’

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Secondly, Faith’s pink bow is symbolic because the color pink is generally associated with innocence or purity. At the beginning of the story, Hawthorne mentions Faith’s ribbon multiple time expressing the fact that Faith is youthful and happy. Later, he reintroduces Faith’s ribbons when Young Goodman Brown is in the forest struggling with his doubts about the

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"Then God bless you!" said Faith, with the pink ribbons, "and may you find all well, when you come back." Oddly, she gives an indirect answer and ends her plea with "Then God bless you!". Hawthorne may have intended to give the reader the impression that Goodman Brown feels like faith or religion has not lived up to its end of the bargain, and he feels betrayed or a lack of trust in

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