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Young Goodman Brown Theme Essay

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Young Goodman Brown Theme Essay
Some major themes of Nathaniel Hawthorne used in Young Goodman Brown were that everyone has their own walk with the devil, some choose to continue on their walk of temptation and others choose to keep on the right path. Also, he symbolically expresses that men need to hold on to their faith. Both of these themes can apply in life everywhere, everyone has a secret.
When Goodman Brown chooses to take his walk with the devil he does it purely out of curiosity. During his walk he encounters people from his life that religiously influenced him, also he found out that his own family had taken their own walks with the devil. Hawthorne used this to symbolize that everyone goes through a period of temptation. In this case the people he looked up to had "befriended the devil" and strayed off the path that they seem to have been following but it isn't widely known.
Goodman's walk with the devil can also symbolize the moment when we have a choice between the right and wrong
…show more content…
Faith is actually a symbol for mans faith in whatever they believe in. Goodman left his faith to walk with the devil and we find out later that his "faith" was taken. In real life men can lose their faith in their beliefs so easily when hardships come and they stray off the right path and forget about their faith. Goodman realized that he had given up his faith when he finds her ribbon on the forest floor and heard her screams in the distance. After his experience he questions whether or not what he saw was real or just a dream, when people go through hardships they begin to question whether or not their faith is strong enough to get them through so they let go.
Young Goodman Brown is a great allegory and can apply to anyone's life. The symbolism used by Hawthorne takes a second to understand but after reading the story you can gain a better understanding about mankind and the

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