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FINAL PRESENTATION:

Cameron and Anthony's Final Presentation

Close Reading Paper edited.docx 

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Whetzler Final Paper

The story Young Goodman Brown written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a Christian man named Young Goodman Brown who seems to be having some difficulties balancing his Christian beliefs with the sin that is tempting him. Young Goodman Brown comes from a Christian family from the town of Salem. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses a lot of allegories which play a huge part in understanding his literature. A few examples that I have noticed in Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown are the way he uses the word faith, the pink ribbon that faith wears, and the staff that the man Goodman Brown goes through the woods with is carrying.

            When it comes to the way Hawthorne uses the word faith throughout this piece of literature it could mean two different things. At first glance at the word faith he says that Young Goodman Brown’s wife’s name is Faith. Although Hawthorne portrays Faith as Goodman Brown’s wife if you read deeper into it there is a completely different meaning of the word faith. The context that Hawthorne uses the word faith shows that faith is not really Young Goodman Brown’s wife but rather is Goodman Brown’s literal faith in God.

             I feel as if Hawthorne depicts faith as Young Goodman Brown’s wife to show how strong of a connection Goodman Brown has with his literal faith. Hawthorne gives many hints to why one may think that his wife Faith really is not his wife. One example from the literature that gives a subtle hint to Goodman Brown’s faith is when he is leaving to go on a sin filled journey into the forest Young Goodman Brown turns around and looks at his wife faith and she looks back, to me this part of the story seemed like he was leaving his faith in God behind.

            Another allegory that Hawthorne uses that many people would simply over look is the fact that Goodman Brown’s wife wore a pink ribbon on her hat. The pink ribbon is not just a ribbon, the pink ribbon could possibly represent Faith’s innocence, youth, and playfulness, at the same time the pink ribbon could mean that Faith is not as innocent as first thought due to the color of the ribbon. Although the ribbon is pink if you look deeper into it and think about the two colors that make up the color pink you will find white and red. The two colors that make up pink are significant because white usually represents innocence, and red is usually associated with evil or the Devil. When Young Goodman Brown is gets close to the Devil’s communion he hears a voice that he believes to be the voice of his wife Faith, when he hears it he yells for her and by that time he sees a pink ribbon falling from the sky which signifies that faith is gone and has loss her innocence.

            Goodman Brown said that the guy he was with in the forest had a staff that looked like the great blank snake which we all know serpents go hand in hand with the Devil’s sin. Like in the book of genesis the serpent tempted Eve to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree, which is similar to Goodman Brown because once he took the serpent like staff he lost all of his innocence and disobeyed his faith and was punished for it by losing the beliefs he once had. The staff seemed to have magical powers because when Young Goodman Brown grabbed it, the staff flew through the woods to the Devil’s communion. The staff seemed to be moving in some parts of the reading which made it seem alive. The staff played an important part in this piece of literature because it references back to the bible as stated above.

            This story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an allegory for the fall of man. This story is about a man who is tempted by the devil and leaves his faith behind. Similar to Adam and Eve when they ate the fruit from the forbidden tree. Young Goodman Brown is similar to Eve because it seems like he wants to see what would happen if he followed another path which in this case was following the Devil into the forest. When he came back to Salem the happy life he lived was gone and he started seeing the worse sides of the people he once knew well. When he came back and saw Faith he did not even acknowledge her.

            Nathaniel Hawthorne did a good job putting hidden meanings into this piece of literature. From the use of allegories to the descriptions he gave of certain things such as the staff really make you have to look and think about what is really happening. This story was about a man who was tricked by the devil to give up everything he believed in, and in return lost the life he once had back in Salem.

            This story written by Hawthorne shows how strong sin can be because Young Goodman Brown was a Christian man like his father and his grandfather but the Devil is always around and trying to push sin on you but you have to trust in your faith and do what you think is right. There is an old saying that says curiosity killed the cat and to me that saying fits perfectly with the story of Young Goodman Brown because he was curious of what was in the woods and when he got in there he could have turned back but that curiosity kept him going and led him into sin ad away from faith.

            Hawthorne used allegories such as Young Goodman Brown’s wife Faith, the pink ribbons on her hat and the Devil’s staff to tell a story about how a man who is curios went and gave up his faith to see what else was out in the world ad afterwards realized that life without faith is not as enjoyable as life with faith. So the main question is, was Young Goodman Brown dreaming or did he actually go through all of this? My answer to that would have to be that he was dreaming because there were people flying on brooms and staffs, he was hearing voices of people who were not there and lastly he said he met the Devil I the woods.

Drawing By: Marissa Kleckner

                This drawing strongly represents one of the main focuses of this paper, which is, whether Faith is Young Goodman Browns wife or if Hawthorne meant it as his literal faith in God. In this piece of work by Marissa Kleckner she seemed to interpret that Hawthorne meant that Faith was Young Goodman Browns wife. Her interpretation of this piece of literature and my interpretation are different because I believe that Goodman Brown is having some sort of psychological problem or dreaming about all of this because even if his wife’s name was Faith how would this explain the supernatural events that occurred throughout this piece of literature

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American Literature I Final Paper Rubric

Reader Response: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/glossary-terms/detail/reader-response-theory -

Does Hawthorne's ambiguous allegory lend itself to "reader response" theory?