NOTES/PREWRITE:
ESSAY:
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown," the main character encounters individuals and situations that persuade him to conform outwardly and question inwardly. As commonly seen in present and previous day society, this circumstance can be very difficult for one to cope with and overcome. Like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, this short story poses the theme that one shouldn't sacrifice individuality in pursuit of social acceptance." Hawthorne's goal in this short story is to exploit the central message that one may weaken or even lose ones faith and morality while attempting to conform or cater to society's morality and religious principles. In the story, Young Goodman Brown is forced to question whether or not the forces surrounding him are good or evil and at the same time abandon his own personal faith and morals. Through the dense use of symbolism and allusion, Hawthorne is able to easily portray his allegorical story to the reader.
Young Goodman Brown, a man from Salem, is portrayed by Hawthorne as a flat, static character. Because the reader does not visualize or comprehend any shifts in the behaviors or qualities of Goodman, one can state that Goodman is a stable character who struggles internally. 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.
Throughout the novel, Hawthorne's intense, elaborate use of symbolism presents how one, in the search for social acceptance, looses individuality and personal morals. Because he pursued the journey, Goodman collapsed to the evil and darkness of sin. Even though his resting faith and light of heaven was their reaching out to him, he abandoned it and resulted in an individual who was loved and cared for by a few, lived a miserable, sketchy, faithless life that will forever be corrupted by sin.
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