Period 1 AP Literature & Composition 24 October 2014 Analysis of Symbolism in Young Goodman Brown In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, Young Goodman Brown, the devil’s staff symbolizes the inevitable loss of innocence that will arise from the temptation of the sinful nature of man, probing at the idea that no one is truly pure. The beginning of Young Goodman Brown starts off with a sense of mystery and suspense. The audience understands that Goodman Brown is going on a “journey” in the woods of Salem. Hawthorne depicts Brown as a man who takes pride in his faith and his family. Shortly after he starts his journey, he meets with the mysterious traveler with a serpent on his staff.
The tones of this piece reflect the man’s remorseful and protective qualities of fulfilling his duties. The author’s detail in “The Rattler” affects the speaker’s attitude of a pity on the man’s having to kill the snake. The man had a chore to do, and the “ominous” song of death conveys the message to
Cameron Tipton Mrs. Woodard English 101 13 May 2015 Young Goodman Brown: The Dynamic Dynamite In a dream, Young Goodman Brown finds himself unsure of everything he has believed in. Young Goodman Brown is changed by his spiritual journey and is enlightened by the darkness that lies in the people he trust the most. A few influences play key roles in his transformation during his journey through the forest. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown”, the audience discovers a path of destruction in which the main character is dynamically changed due to his innocence, corruptibility, and faith. Innocence is easily corrupted by the gestures of the obscene.
She practices her faith even though she can get crops or needs from the Wal-Mart that is “just down the road” (112). She can even perform a ceremony for her granddaughter in New York to the “twenty-first century totem pole…made of flash and neon” (114). Harjo is able to carry out her rituals and use her belief as a therapeutic figure for challenges she faces in life because nothing can damage her spiritual experience. Before Kamps became the spiritual being she is now, she once went to church to find truth in life. When Kamps’ mother died and she was pregnant, she needed the church the most.
Essay English 102 Professor Reggury February 22, 2011 “Barn Burning” In “Barn-Burning” Faulkner presents Abner Snopes as an evil Character. Symbolically, Snopes is shown to share similar qualities to the most pure of evil, Satan. Faulkner uses the mind of Snopes’s son, Sarty, to describe and point out to the readers these Satan-like characteristics that Snopes possesses. Additionally, it shows the readers the relationship that Snopes have with his family (blood loyalty) and the rest of society. Throughout the short story Faulkner makes reference to the depthless silhouette of Abner Snopes.
The man states that “[his] duty was to kill the snake.” When the man uses the word “duty” it gives a sense that there are no other options and that it’s imperative that he does it. The reader knows the man is unskilled at killing animals since his actions are described as hacking and messy, so his attempts look horrific as the reader reads in disappointment. The reader can still condole with the man and pity him for making the decisions that he does. Also, the man reflects “that there were children, dogs, horses at the ranch,
Similarly, both stories bring about an area of uncertainty, in which both main characters of the stories, Goodman Brown from “Young Goodman Brown” and Connie, from “Where are You Going, Were Have You Been?” are put in vulnerable positions. In “Young Goodman Brown”, Brown leaves his wife to complete a quick “errand” in the forest. There, he meets a man holding a suspicious stick with a snake illustration, looking, however; like an ordinary man. Brown classified this ordinary looking man as the devil shortly after the man asked him if he’d like to walk with the stick. Regardless, Brown did not return back to his home, to return to his wife, Faith, he continued to follow the old man.
Andrew told Antonio, “I will wait and not enter until you lose your innocence”(71). Antonio, later in the story, seeing Andrew in Rosie’s was a confirmation of Antonio’s losing his innocence and Antonio wanted to stay innocent forever. Another example of Antonio’s developing sense of good and evil is the witch's bosque in the forest. Antonio knows the forest is evil because it is a forbidden area where witches practice the Black Mass in honor of the devil. This is the place where the Trementina sisters placed a curse on Antonio's Uncle Lucas and Antonio said, “It was truly the work of a bruja that was slowly killing my uncle!”(84).
He feels betrayed and his pain turns to anger as he becomes engulfed with rage and vows to destroy her partner. When he confronts Hester for the first time, she asks him ‘“Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the forest round about us? Hast thou enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul?’ /’ ‘Not thy soul,’ he answered, with another smile. ‘No, not thine!’” (Hawthorne, 74). Hester equates him to the devil; but Chillingworth makes it clear he seeks no vengeance on her, only her partner.
The black man likes to hang out in the woods leaving him to be even more judged as satan because the forest is unknown and evil. Durning this the thought is provoked, that is exactly what Hawthorne is trying to do by adding all of this symbolism into his writing. He adds more into his writing such as the