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Symbolism And Imagery In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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This story was a result of the Puritan religion, known for its extremist views and violence. The Puritans used “spectral evidence”, which they could convict or condemn anyone that they thought necessary. This shaped the culture and ideas of people who lived in and around the Puritan society.In the short story “Young goodman brown”, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses strong symbolism and imagery to show and explain the Puritan culture and ideas. He puts it all together in a short story, using pieces of his own life and experiences. He displays an interesting perspective on the puritan society that gives a more in depth idea of what was happening. The overall point of the text is to give an accurate representation of the Puritan society, Hawthorne uses …show more content…

This gives the story more emotional appeal because rather than saying that everyone is filled with sin, it makes the statement more precise by saying everyone, even the people close to you, is filled with sin and evil. This all gives examples of Nathaniel Hawthorne using ethos or emotional appeal to further display his …show more content…

Language such as “devils promise to be the queen of hell”, “forest of demons laughing around him”(Hawthorne).This gives yet again another piece of language centered around the somber ideas of puritan

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Puritan literature largely consists of poems, sermons, and personal journals and served a purpose such as to teach or inform instead of entertaining. The Puritans generally valued religion and simplicity in their society and thusly much of their lives focused on just that. I felt that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s account of puritan society through his story The Minister’s Black Veil differed from that of original puritan literature. While puritan literature was nonfictional and centers on enlightenment and religion in their daily life, Hawthorne wrote a fictional account to describe the puritan values. Because of this difference I feel that original puritan literature is far more accurate portrayal of puritan culture.

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By negatively depicting the Puritans with his depressing diction, Hawthorne establishes a scornful tone that highlights the Puritan’s

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Chris Ocampo Period 4A October 18,2015 Character Analysis/symbolism/Theme Identification-Analysis Essay Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of symbolic commentary and conventional themes in The Scarlet Letter, The Ministers Black Veil, and The Birthmark, characterizes sin and judgment as deformations within us all. Within each of Hawthorne’s’ works sin reflects internal and exposed sins, as well in people’s flaws. However, there deformations expand further than the objects that they wear. All of the major symbols and themes in Hawthorns selected works embody Alienation. Hester Prynne, Aylmer, and Mr. Hooper are linked to the ambiguity of Puritan morals.

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Witchcraft and Satanic activity are prevalent in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works, including “The Scarlet Letter” and “Young Goodman Brown”. From Mistress Hibbins in “The Scarlet Letter” and the walk Goodman Brown takes with the devil through the forest in “Young Goodman Brown”, the satanic influence and witchcraft are shown. Some questions arise when delving deeper into the meaning of these influences. What did the Puritans believe about the evil capabilities of Satan and witchcraft? How willing would they have been to believe Hawthorne’s accounts?

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Hawthorne's strongest criticisms of Puritan society show themselves in "Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil," and The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne knows well that no one is free from sin,

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The audience would relate to how they were punished when they made an accidental mistake, eliciting empathy for Prynne. * Ethos Throughout his novel, Hawthorne makes biblical references and allusions in order to give himself credibility. In doing so, he acknowledges the Puritans’ values, which allows his audience to perceive him as an honest and unbiased writer. Moreover, he notes that they have had an ancestral line of these strict values that drove their basis of living.

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In this time period they wanted everyone to have a pure belief in God. If this time people would have not occurred when this writing was written, Edwards probably would have gone a different way with it. “Young Goodman Brown” was written during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. This time period affected the story. We know that this time period affected the writing because along the path the “devil” is talking to a witch and Young Goodman Brown was shocked to see what he did not know.

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THESIS: In the literary pieces The Scarlet Letter and “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasizes the negative effects of guilt and sin through the presence of Puritan ideals, the symbolism of sin, and the motif of the nature of evil. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s experiences within the Puritan community greatly impacted his writing style. The Scarlet Letter and “The Minister’s Black Veil” each contain Puritan ideals that are used to convey the negative effects of guilt and sin. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses Puritan ideals to create a strict, judgmental community where sins are taken very seriously.

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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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During his journey of sin, Young Goodman Brown and the devil come upon Goody Cloyse, Young Goodman Brown's catechism teacher, and, still believing that she is a “pious and exemplary dame” Goodman Brown tries to stay away from the woman by pleading with the devil “I shall take a cut through the woods… being a stranger to you, she might ask whom I was consorting with” (3). Because of Young Goodman Brown’s beliefs of her innocence, it is even more jolting to him when she “knows her old friend,” the devil, and speaks about stolen broomsticks, recipes including “the juice of smallage and cinquefoil and wolf’s-bane,” and even the same devilish meeting that Young Goodman Brown and his accomplice are to attend (3). With signs that all point to sin and witchcraft, Young Goodman Brown’s shock in saying “That old woman taught me my catechism” had “a world of meaning” as he cannot possibly believe that a woman known to be so holy and righteous in the community could be so evil within. As Goodman Brown moves past the shock of Goody Cloyse’s actions, he is exposed to the sins of the holiest members of their Puritan community, the minister and Deacon Gookin. While Goodman Brown shamefully “[conceals] himself within the verge of the forest… he recognized the voices of the minister and Deacon Gookin” who speak of the same evil “meeting” as Goody Cloyse and even remark that “several of the Indian powwows” will even be present (4,5).

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Man is born with original sin, the illustrious phrase that thoroughly represents the normative belief of Puritanism, serves an influential role in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writings. Though inherited with Puritanical roots, the complete oeuvre of Nathaniel Hawthorne vividly portrays his refusal to be a Puritan and depicts his disapproval on Puritan ideas. Hawthorne's perspective on ‘sin’ draws a parallel connection with Puritans, yet he criticizes Puritan religious beliefs through one of his prominent masterpiece: The Minister’s Black veil. In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Hawthorne conveys his criticism of Puritan ideas through the symbol of the black veil, an emblem of sin within the Earth as opposed to Puritan’s view of the sinless God, a representation

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An addict from a Persian-Jewish family struggles with his addiction to drugs and steals from his family, who are struggling with their own personal issue. BRIEF SYNOPSIS SAM RAHIMZADEH (26) comes from a proud Persian-Jewish family. He's addicted to Xanax and has been in rehab twice. He seems to have no real direction in his life. He believes everyone has “fucked” him over and he wants to fuck them back.

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They are set during the Puritan time period in which people were very concerned with sin. For example, in “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Mr. Hooper wears a black veil over his face which represents secret sin. He refuses to remove this veil and claims that “there is an hour to come when all of us shall cast aside our veils”(Hawthorne). This implies that everyone’s

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The Scarlet Letter, a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, functions as an evaluation of Puritan ideas, customs, and culture during the 17th century. Through this evaluation, we can get a good idea of what core values and beliefs the Puritans possessed, as well as the actions they take in cases of adversity brought about by “sinners”. Some Puritan virtues created stark divisions between groups of people, some of which led to discrimination under certain circumstances. One of the most prominent of these is the treatment and standards of men and women, a concept that surfaced during some of the major points in The Scarlet Letter. The divisions that were created by Puritan standards of men and women played a great role in shaping the plot of The Scarlet Letter, determining the fate of many of the characters.

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