Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

There is nothing but black all around the forest. Only the stars shine bright as the dark trees and path calls forth the treacherous Indians and shadows of the night. Bushes close behind as mysterious sounds race underfoot. There is even a smidge of black in the good man’s heart, whose owner is walking through the sea of dark with an equally, if not more, serpent-like staff carrying dark companion. This respectable man is Young Goodman Brown, as portrayed in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown”. The forest is only a small part of the setting, as this also takes place in a village in Salem Massachusetts and surrounding area the year 1692. The mood is heavy with superstition, confusion, doubt, betrayal, and shallowness. Goodman Brown sets the exposition as he parts with his sweet, pink-capped wife, Faith, to leave at dusk for the ominous meeting in the forest with the inexplicable companion. Evil and doubt merge as the two walk, eventually meeting a seemingly good woman who is on her way to a sinister meeting. Astonishment hits young Goodman as the true nature of the woman is revealed, and his companion disappears. More trusted, holy people ride on for the same meeting, and the climax is not until Goodman hears the anguished cry of Faith, and sees her helpless, pink ribbon, did he follow the people like a delirious man. He comes upon a blazing-red rock, with the townspeople trying to convince the Browns to give up faith. A sharp crack suddenly sounds, and Goodman sits dazed by a tree. The denoument starts the next morning, when he stumbles into the village, never quite the sane man he was again. Hawthorne discloses in this story that one simple journey might change one’s life, and perhaps even the perspective.

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...xample, most people believe in good and evil, and they have faithfulness. They know to do good deeds, and not be a hypocrite, or they would never have trust invested in them again. One person could be a hypocrite, or the whole community could be. People are not Puritans, so hypocrisy is not as taken into severance as it was then. In a personal view, this story is quite confusing. The language has little to no factor, but the majority would be about the clarity of events. When the man disappears, and Goodman is left, it seemed that the man had taken the place of Goodman, as like before when they meet the woman (Goody Cloyse). Other than that, this story is quite a descriptive and interesting adventure. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s mood is grim, but there is just the perfect amount of suspense and mystery laced within the serious historical writing of “Young Goodman Brown”.