Prose Essay

Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a short story about a character how is faced with the choice of staying true to himself or conforming to societies pressures. The theme of this story is the good versus evil that every person must battle throughout their lives. Young Goodman Brown's battle is a decision between going to the devils side or staying true to his wife and returning home to the village. The author uses inward questioning and outward conformation to show the battle that Young Goodman Brown fights, but essentially shows the character's unavoidable loss of innocence. With symbolism in Faith's ribbon, allusions to the Bible, and a serious tone the author is able to show how the character of Goodman Brown eventually gives in to the evil side, which contributes to the meaning of the story by showing how easy it is to give in to people that you know and trust. 

Hawthorne uses symbolism as a way of ensuring that Goodman Brown's character will continue to question the "evil" side. Faith's pink ribbon resembles innocence and purity. It shows her youth and happiness when said in this line, "And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap while she called to Goodman Brown." Faith's character of purity is the driving force behind Goodman Brown's inward questioning. The author uses the devil's ceremony to try and lure Young Goodman Brown's character into the evil side, but the attraction the author created between Faith and Goodman Brown keeps Goodman Brown fighting the evil. Hawthorne also uses symbolism with the woods. The author uses the woods to resemble the fear that Goodman Brown's character feels. Every time the character enters the forest a chill goes through his whole body. This contributes to the overall meaning in that the author uses negative things to draw him in, while allowing him to recognize the bad and fear in them. Although he senses the fear, he knows that it is impossible to get away from them.

The author has Young Goodman Brown's character start to outwardly conform when he shows that all of the people who the character knows and loves, including his father and grandfather, have also gone to the evil side. Historical tradition and allusions are used that contribute to the pull between the good and evil. This story was written in the time of the Salem witch trials, which forces the author to pull the character to the evil side, but the allusions to the Bible encourage the author to pull the character to the good side. "'But, were I to go on with thee, how should I meet the eye of that good old man, our minister, at Salem village? Oh, his voice would make me tremble both Sabbath day and lecture day.'" In this line, there is a reference to Salem village, which was where the witch trials were happening and is another negative thought the author puts into the character's head to get him to conform to the evil side. Yet also in this line, the author refers to Sabbath day and lecture day, which are from the Bible, which shows the mixed emotions of the character between good and evil. The allusions and historical time period are used to show the battle in the character's head, which still seems to be confused and unsure what to do.

When Goodman Brown's character hears a lot of familiar voices from his village, he finally gives into the devil and goes to the ceremony. There the author has many other characters that Goodman Brown is familiar with, which of course creates shock, but also shows how going to the evil side was inevitable because everyone else was there and pressuring him to also do so. The author used a serious and formal tone, but also one that kept the readers on their toes. The tone had a sense of anticipation and fear because the readers knew that in the end the author would have the character turn to the evil side. Although the story is eloquent and to the point it has an overall tone of seriousness because of the topic it is discussing, which is betrayal and deep-rooted evil. The tone the author uses seems to foreshadow Young Goodman Brown going to the evil side from the beginning of the story. If there was hope that he would choose good, there would have been a different tone. 

The author created a story in which there was a battle between good and evil, yet the evil was predestined. Faith and religion kept Goodman Brown on the good side for as long a possible, but the pressures of the rest of the community, especially the pressures from the people of Goodman Brown's church, led him to accept the evil side. The tension of inwardly questioning and outwardly conforming contributed to the overall meaning in that he fought a battle that was already chosen for him. The historical time period and allusions helped to fuel the confusion, but would lead him to an inevitable ending. While the theme is good versus evil, it was also a loss of innocence that wouldn't and couldn't be avoided. Without a serious tone the author would not have been able to emphasize the betrayal and evil that took place, but without symbolism it would not be possible to create the contrast between pure and evil.