Purity And Vivacity Essay

The essence of Purity and Vivacity in a story

Often times in stories symbols are created by the author to exemplify a meaning to the story such as happiness, evil, joy, and even death. Those symbols take on that role of developing a meaning to intrigue the reader. In terms of definition, a symbol can be seen in more than one way such as person, place, and object. Authors such as Amy Tan who wrote “Two Kinds”, Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote “Young Goodman Brown, and Kate Chopin who wrote “The Storm” provide an essence of purity and vivacity throughout their story. Author Amy Tan who wrote “Two Kinds” shows the symbols of purity and vivacity representing what the protagonist Jing-Mei and what her mother wanted her to be which was a prodigy

We wanted them to be proud of us. In the story “Two kinds” written by Amy Tan she outlines a character named Jing-Mei who has a strict mother who seems to want to live out her dream through her daughter. She wanted her daughter to become this vivacious lively young lady with purity. Purity as in freedom to be the best that she can be. By definition purity can mean the freedom to do whatever one wants to do in spite of the standards placed on by society. Jing-Mei’s mother sets her expectations very high. Jing-Mei the daughter protagonist of the mother protagonist goes along with what her mother’s wishes are by acting as if she doesn’t care and just goes a long with what her mother says just to gain her mother’s approval. In the story vivacity represents beauty and attractiveness and also a sense of liveliness that the character is learning to portray. Her mother is a very strict woman with high expectations. Every mother I’m sure has some kind of expectations for their child. However Jing-Mei’s mother pushed her to do everything she can such as watching Shirley Temple, doing knowledge tests and playing piano and taking lessons just to be the prodigy that her mother always wanted her to be. However, her mother had no idea what kind of talent Jing-Mei possessed she just wanted her to be the best she can be and to one day be famous Child

The shade of pink on the ribbons are associated with “innocence” and “gaiety”. Gaiety in meaning being lighthearted and cheerful. In “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathanial Hawthorne the pink ribbons are symbolic of Faith’s innocent and gaiety. The pink ribbons are first introduced when Young Goodman Brown is walking into Salem Village with his wife Faith who turns to exchange a kiss while the wind was blowing her pink ribbons that were inside of her cap. Hawthorne reintroduces the pink ribbons when Young Goodman brown is struggling with his own thoughts and beliefs and around the goodness of people. Young Goodman brown walks into a congregation in the forest. Nathanial Hawthorne writes. “Depending upon one another’s hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream! Now are we undeceived!-Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome, again, my children to the communion of your race.”-(Nathanial Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”, (1835)). Young Goodman brown has basically lost faith in his own fellowmen by this point. He loses his faith after watching one of Faith’s ribbons get caught on a tree and land on a twig. Faith is his only symbol of love and purity. Purity as in a woman of God and faith. He believes Faith has lost her faith. Without faith he wouldn’t be Young Goodman Brown. Rather than strolling towards the villain towards the