"Young Goodman Brown" Questions

1. The allegory in "Young Goodman Brown" is about the journey that everyone faces at one point or another in their lives. It shows the internal struggle between good and evil and the temptations each person faces.

2. The pink ribbons represent faith, innocence, purity, and overall goodness. When Faith loses her ribbons, it symbolizes the loss of these qualities.
Faith is a symbol of faith. Duh.
The devil's staff is a symbol of evil, treachery, and wickedness.
The forest is symbolic of darkness, evil, and the unknown.

3. I think that the events young Goodman Brown experienced in the woods could be both real and imaginary. The events being real reinforces the story's point, the idea that everyone is evil, even the people that appear to be the "holiest", and that everyone has secrets. Hawthorne also wrote "Young Goodman Brown" about the Salem witch trials, so perhaps he was still a little bitter about them and meant it to be read as real. It is also likely that the events Goodman Brown experienced were an illusion, as the townspeople are completely normal after that night, and Goodman Brown was on a metaphorical quest to discover his own feelings about good and evil, probably not an actual cult ceremony.

4. Goodman Brown, Faith, Goody Cloyse, Deacon Gookin, the devil, the rest of the people at the witch ceremony, the minister, the townspeople.

5. King Philip's War is an allusion to King Philip's War.
The Egyptian Magi and the staff are an allusion to the place in Exodus where Moses goes against the Egyptian Magi, who turn their staffs into snakes, and his staff turns into a snake and eats the other snakes.

6. I liked "Young Goodman Brown". It was interesting and philosophical, it gives you something to think about. Anything about the occult interests me. Hawthorne has good points about the whole conflict between evil and good and how it applies to our lives. He didn't make the symbolism, metaphors, or allusions too hard to figure out either, which is nice.

7. I think that hawthorne is critical of some of the characters in the story. Not necessarily Goodman Brown, but Hawthorne is critical of the townspeople. Goodman Brown is one of the few characters who made a realization, while the townspeople continue leading lives of lies and hypocrisy.

8. I think the theme of "Young Goodman Brown" is that there is always a struggle between good and evil going on, especially internally, and that there is a point in life that everyone reaches where they must face it.