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In short stories, I have learned that there is much more than what at BR first meets the eye. Almost everything in the story has meaning. All I BR have to do is try to find the hints and clues the writer drops and BR manage to put them all together. I have to concentrate more than I ever BR have so that I can interpret the authors meaning and what he or she BR might really be trying to convey in the writing. In "Young Goodman BR Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I determined that through diverse BR symbolism, Hawthorne writes of a man who in his coming of age learns BR that there is a darkness in everyone and upon this coming of knowledge, BR From the start, Hawthorne describes Goodman Brown as a good Puritan who BR is devoted to his wife ^Faith, ' whose name he uses like a shield for his BR soul. At the beginning of his walk through the woods, Brown runs into BR the Devil who tries to convert him; this is shown by the Devil's BR offering of the staff to Brown.
The Devil goes on to say that Brown's BR family has had dealings with evil in the past; examples used are the BR Salem witch trials and the killing of Indian non-combatants. This may BR be Hawthorne's way of dealing with guilt he might have felt over his own BR forbears' actions during those times. Brown goes on to say that he BR could not bear the shame of betraying his faith while the Devil is BR naming people known and respected by Brown to try to show him that it BR wouldn't really be that bad if Brown joined the witches' coven. When BR Goody Close is encountered, Brown learns how she truly feels about him; BR also, Goody Close freely takes up the Devil's staff. Proud of himself BR for denying the Devil, while again using his wife's name to strengthen BR his resolve, Brown discovers that his respected Minister, Deacon Gookin, BR and even the Indians are all servants of the Devil. When Brown learns BR that his wife has given into the temptation of the Devil, the Christian BR belief he is struggling to keep is shaken from him. "My Faith is gone!" BR "There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name.
Come, devil! for to BR thee is this world given. " This shows that the most important thing in BR Christianity, his faith, is lost. Throughout the night, Brown finds out BR more than he ever wanted to know about how his fellow Puritan townsmen BR have betrayed their faith by giving in to their darker desires, he even BR feels his father urging him onward to do the same. All that he learns BR in the night is too much for him, and it changes a devoted husband with BR bright hopes and a wife whom he loves to a tired, beaten, questioning BR Hawthorne uses symbolism to write a story that is open and ambiguous to BR interpretation. For myself, I believe it is about Hawthorne himself who BR is growing up in a time when many Puritan children are leaving the BR Puritan faith. There are many times in the story when he is questioning BR his faith by listing the examples of religious infractions by his BR peers.
For all this, it is a wonder Hawthorn was not eaten by the BR despair and guilt he lets Goodman Brown feel. BR Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Goodman Brown Goody Close
