Young Goodman Brown Literary Analysis

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"A Rose for Emily" is a short story written by William Faulkner. This story takes place in Faulkner 's fictional city, Jefferson, Mississippi, in Yoknapatawpha County. "Young Goodman Brown" is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This story takes place during the 17th century and discusses the Puritan belief that all of humanity exists in a state of corruption, except those who are fortunately born into a state of grace.
In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily’s house is a commemoration of the only remaining emblem of a dying world of Southern aristocracy. The outside of her large, square frame house is richly decorated. The cupolas, spires, and scrolled balconies are the decadent style of architecture from the 1870 's. When the story takes …show more content…

The color pink is associated with innocence and cheer, just as the ribbons themselves are a modest, innocent decoration. Hawthorne mentions Faith’s pink ribbons many times at the beginning of the story, filling her character with youthfulness and happiness. Reintroducing the ribbons when Goodman Brown is in still the forest, struggling with his doubts about the righteousness of the people he knows. When the pink ribbon drifts down from the sky, Goodman Brown perceives it as a sign that Faith has definitely fallen onto the devil’s path, shedding this sign of her purity and innocence. At the end of the story, Faith greets Goodman Brown as he returns from the forest; she is again wearing her pink ribbons. This indicates that she has returned to the innocence she presented at the beginning of the story and casting out the doubts on the faithfulness of Goodman Brown’s experiences.
Although these are two very different stories there symbolic structures are much the same. They give the reader some character insight as the reader is able to put the pieces together and gain a better understanding of the main character in the story. Emily’s house is an extension of herself in the way that it lives in the past and as Young Goodman Brown takes a walk down the path of the unknown he is faced with reliving the past, testing his already brittle

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