Spring Break Homework: Young Goodman Brown Essay

     In the short story "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character is forced into circumstances and put into contact with other characters that made him fall beneath the pressure and question who he is and who he wants to be. Similar to todays current society, it is hard for people to stay true to who they are while still fitting in with the 'in crowd.' It's easy for one to lose who they are through schooling and specifically the four years of high school. As do many other authors, Hawthorne displays a theme in which someone has to fight for who they are and put themselves first before trying to change for others acceptance. Within the story line, Young Goodman Brown is conflicted with trying to figure out the people he is surrounded by and who he truly is as an individual. Hawthorne is successfully able to write his short story with a lasting theme through the use of symbolism and allusion.
     Young Goodman Brown is seen as a very flat and static character throughout the short story by Hawthorne and although he seems to remain stable to others, he is struggling internally without anyone knowing as many did and still do to this day. From initially abandoning both the literal and metaphorical Faiths, Goodman is a vulnerable, hesitant individual that gives the story its purpose. Not only does he symbolize the human habit to question and doubt oneself, but also represents the loss of innocence of human kind. Goodman comes across several other characters in the story, all who have guided him into the temptation of outwardly conformation. In this trial of faith and human mental strength, Goodman enables the close yet distant forces persuade him into abandoning his personal faith, morals, and religious principles. He's triumphed on the fact that he is stuck in a pickle, not knowing who or what is good or evil, happy or sad, or true or false. This is what causes the infolding of Goodman in which he gives up on his faith and lives the rest of his life miserable, hesitant, sheltered, and hopeless.
     Another form of symbolism that Hawthorne exploits in his short story is the literal and metaphorical Faith. Literally, Faith is the worried wife of Young Goodman Brown, the woman who was so influential to Goodman. The metaphorically Faith was the force that was constantly questioned by Goodman, the Faith that resembles the light of the story, the positives of Young Goodman Brown, and the one thing/individual who can save and preserve Goodman. It is when Goodman first leaves the literal Faith that his metaphorical faith left him. In the forest when the pink bow that Faith was described wearing in the first few scenes of the story blows down by Goodman, it is indicated to the reader that Faith had removed her ribbon because Goodman had abandoned his own faith and conformed to the cruel, wicked forces surrounding him. The light and fire in the dark, muggy forest symbolizes that better, brighter place than the place one is at now. Hawthorne utilizes dichotomy in which he then goes on to portray the dark forest that is intended to symbolize the sin and realm of the evil. Goodman begins his journey in the light, bright daytime when his faith urges him not to travel in the dark but wait until sunrise in order to avoid the devil and remain in God's, Christian light which keeps him safe.

    Young Goodman Brown was a man who’s questioning of those around him led to his ultimate outward changing to the ideas he believed in his head. His story is a metaphor for the inevitable influence that the environment has on individuals. We can try so hard to stand out and be our own person but the power that we have on ourselves to believe what we tell ourselves is greater than how hard we try to make sense of everything. Young Goodman Brown changed himself from the truth he felt he saw and nothing could tell him otherwise which led to his ending.