Young Goodman Brown
“Young Goodman Brown” 1. No, the story is too complex. The symbolism, parallels, and motifs of the story can be interpreted differently from everyone who reads the story. Hawthorne will never give you the option of a tidy moral because all of his stories are too complex. 2. Goodman Brown is a young, good man with a very common last name. His name is significant in how he can be compared to every other young, good man. 3. The forest is very dark and dreary, with the gloomiest of trees that close the path after Brown walks through. It symbolizes evil and entrapment of oneself. Salem village is nothing like the forest; it seems happy and peaceful, not all dark and dreary. 4. Goodman Brown goes into the forest to do what he needs, he tells himself that he will do the job and then return swiftly back to his faith. Faith his wife and faith in his religion kept him back. 5. The pink ribbons symbolize faith his wife and the mixture of sin and purity. The ribbons appear throughout the entire story. 6. Goodman Brown talks about how there could be Indians hiding behind every tree or how someone could be watching him, which he then stumbles upon the traveler. The traveler is the devil in disguise. He tricks Goodman Brown to go with him through the forest. The staff the traveler was using turns into a snake when the traveler is talking to an old woman, who appears to be a witch, about the