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Symbols and metaphors in young goodman brown
Allegories in young goodman brown
Allegories in young goodman brown
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Young Goodman Brown's Moral Decline
The symbolism of Young Goodman Brown’s moral decline bypasses the conscious, logical mind and is located in a more dreamlike process. It is interpreted to show that no one truly falls into the category of good or evil. Hawthorne’s use of symbolism shows the neutrality between good and evil and appearance and reality so that the reader is unable to comprehend the difference. Throughout the story, good and evil are described through a bombardment of metaphors. Brown’s long and winding journey through the forest, for example, represents his struggle between his conscious and subconscious. Brown meets the devil at a fork in the road that symbolizes the paths to heaven or hell. Obviously with the devil at his side, Brown took the latter.
The story begins in Brown’s village. The village is a traditional Puritan background: pure, innocent, and god-fearing, which can also illustrate Brown’s conscious. Before entering the forest, Brown looks back at his wife. As described in the story, Brown sees his wife, Faith, peeping back at him with her pink ribbons blowing in her hair. The pink ribbons embody the safety, security, and refuge from sin Brown was leaving behind. Brown statement, "after this one night I’ll cling on to her skirts and follow her into heaven"(96), shows his guilty pride since he believes he can sin by virtue of his promise to himself.
Leaving the village, he enters the forest which represents his subconscious that is infested with evil and sinister thoughts. Furthermore, it allegorically represents every man’s journey for knowledge, though knowledge is usually intertwined with evil such as the Tree of Knowledge in the Adam and Eve story. All the people and objects B...
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... his faith and morals are surrendered to material things, mainly his wife and the townspeople. When the townspeople succumb to the devil, Brown’s faith and ideals also yield to them. However, he himself does not comprehend that he has forsaken God and been lured into the grasp of Satan. Also, Brown’s lack of emotion indicates that he followed his mind, where the main conflict of the story is, instead of his heart. Due to his deficiency of compassion, he shows no grief for himself. As a result, he becomes faithfully and publicly disengaged and dismisses himself from the community.
Works Cited and Consulted
Benoit, Raymond. "'Young Goodman Brown': The Second Time Around." The Nathaniel Hawthorne Review 19 (Spring 1993): 18-21.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Complete Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Doubleday and Co., Inc.,1959.
If Brown truly conceives of himself as fallen, why would he snatch the child from one fiend to yield yet another, namely himself? Brown must believe himself untainted, or at least less tainted than various members of his community. (115)
Slavery in South America looked similar to slavery in the Americas, in that both used African slaves from the Trans-Atlantic trade and used their slaves primarily for the production of labor intensive cash crops.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol1. Ed. Nina Baym, et al. New York: Norton, 1994. 1198-1207.
In conclusion, Slavery in American Society is successful in providing critical evidence on the significance of the world the slaves made for themselves. The slave community was able to withstand many of the master's schemes to convert the slaves into more loyal and obedient workers. Also, the master was unable to stop the slaves from forming close personal ties within the community, however, the slaves were punished for such action if they were caught. The slaves managed to preserve their African culture to some extent as well.
McKeithan, D. M. Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown": An Interpretation 67.2 (1952): 93-96. JSTOR. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
During the history of slavery, the enslaved African Americans’ lived a tough life. From the men, women, and children life was all about surviving being under slavery. Being enslaved and under the vision of white masters, the Africans Americans worked from the early morning until the sun went down on the plantations. Every day the African Americans suffered from illness, starvation, abuse, and more. Many slaves knew they were not going to be successful at escaping but they had their ways of resisting from their masters. Resisting was a constant feature of slavery. Resisting consisted of poor work, feigning illness, or committing crimes like stealing, arson, and poisoning to escape to the North. Some of the most dramatic occurrences
The history of slavery can be traced back to a much earlier time. During the colonial period, there were a lot of Europeans in North American working as slaves. They wanted to seek better life in North American, but they were sold to colonial rulers as slaves. We all know that selling black slaves was the most vicious dealing in human history. However, the huge quantity of profits of selling black slaves became the main source of capital accumulation for Americans.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." 1835. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter et al. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Lexington: Heath, 1944. 2129-38.
It is impossible to fairly analyze Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Young Goodman Brown" around a single literary approach. American novelist, essayist, and poet, Herman Melville, once wrote about Hawthorn's short story that it over time, like wine, it only improves in flavor and body (The Life and Works of Herman Melville). Hawthorne's short story continues to get better with age, and carries today's readers into a world filled with a plethora of meanings for them to pick from its symbolism. Modern readers have interpreted the meaning of Goodman Brown's experience in many ways, but to pigeon hole the story into one view would destroy its veracity.
I come to conclude slavery is the product of humanfs avarice, conceit and selfish. Because of the benefit, we can destroy a personfs life without feeling any guilty. It is really disappointed and disgusted to look back the history of slavery. It let me see the evil part of human being. But I think it is right to do so. It is a good lesson for us, because it tells us that we should learn from the past, in order to prevent it from happening again. It also reminds us everyone should have been treated equally no matter what their race, creed, or color are. Today, freedom and equality are weakening day by day. The African American story is still replaying on every part of the world, not only between black and white people, but people of many different nationalities. Stories will never end, until equality is created in the heart of each person.
Slavery was a part of early colonial America since the beginning. Between 1525 and 1866, in the entire history of the slave trade to the New World, according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. 10.7 million Survived the dreaded Middle Passage, disembarking in North America, the Caribbean and South America. Slavery is defined by exhausting labor and restricted freedom.
Hawthorn, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown" The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. I. Shorter Seventh Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2008. 620-629. Print.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown,” the author uses danger and mystery to represent the struggle of good versus evil. Young Goodman Brown journeys into the night and comes to realize an unforgiving truth. Everyone is in danger of abandoning their faith or is inherently evil. Nathaniel Hawthorne has filled this story symbolism, after reading this story the reader may have questions about Young Goodman Browns’ determination to journey towards his evil purpose. Nathaniel Hawthorne implies strong faith can endure but when that faith is destroyed, what view does a person have towards mankind? Let us take a look at Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of significant symbols throughout “Young Goodman Brown.”
Slavery can be defined as belonging to a person, or being treated like a piece of property, and not having any individual freedom This was essentially the life many Africans lived for many centuries in the Caribbean . The master’s had total freedom and control over his or her slaves. As a result of this behavior they were able to run successful sugar plantations that resembled modern day factories. Until the end of the 18th century many sugar estates used the "gang" system. The owner treated hundreds of slaves as units of production. Many plantation owners had a very profitable and prosperous business, but it was expense of human lives.
In the late 1600s, Early America was marred with a myriad of controversies; none more so than the birth of slave labor. European settlers to the America were amongst the majority when purchasing African enslaved workers. Many of these people believed African slaves were not their equals and their sole purpose was to serve their superior race. This was taught through normal educational values as well as within their Christian religion. In order to lure these African slaves to the Americas, many were stolen from their home land and/or promised various falsehoods. The Europeans, who employed these slaves, rationalized that they were the superior race to Africans and they were providing a better life for them.