Ivan, Jeff, Isabella, Mallory
Honors English 10
Thompson
8 February 2023
Young Goodman Brown Essay
Though it may seem plain on its surface, a typical onion has layers, more depth than meets the eye. In literature, symbols are a key way to peel away the layers of a story. In the short story Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne bundles his writing with irony and symbolism. Faith, Goodman Brown’s wife, and her ribbon represent the goodness and innocence of people. The corrupt authority figures of Brown’s community shows that even the most trusted and pious figures will succumb to immoral desires. The forest in Brown’s dream represents the road to detraction and corruption as we follow his transformation
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Goodman Brown was always pure, never letting anything manipulate him and he never gave in to evil. He was always kind towards his friends, family and peers. Brown’s character takes a change after he goes into the forest in an attempt to save Faith from evil. As he continues on his journey, the road around him “—grew wilder and drearier and more faintly traced, and vanished at length, leaving him in the heart of the dark wilderness, and still rushing onward with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil. The whole forest was filled with frightful sounds.” The sound in the forest represents the voice calling out to Brown’s inner desire, slowly corrupting him. All in all it seems to have worked on Brown, just not in Brown giving in to his desire, but Brown turning into a shell of a person. The dream, to Brown, is “—a dream of evil omen ……. [ and he turned into] A stern, sad, darkly meditative, distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night of that fearful dream. On the Sabbath-day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he could not listen, because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear, and drowned all the blessed strain”. Though Brown was not corrupt in the traditional sense, he was corrupt nonetheless, living the rest of his life in fear and distrust. The forest, and subsequently Brown’s journey, represent how corruption can be subtle in its