Young Goodman Brown Essay

      Young Goodman Brown is a perfect example of symbolism. Everything from characters, setting, dialogue, tone, has some type of symbolism one way or another. He doesn't even try to hide his obvious themes inside some type of tricky dialect. He wrote in old English but his writing techniques stayed obvious. Drifting from old English to some type of poetry.
     Goodman's wife was named Faith. Obviously a symbolic character for Goodman. He needed to leave his wife, or his faith, in order to do something he wasn't exactly proud of. He abandoned the one thing that mattered the most, that needed him the most to pursue something he had dreaded. He regretted the decision instantly. He never lived a happy life after. Was it really his fault or did he feel he had no choice? He felt it needed to be done without really understanding what that decision meant. Likewise today we make decisions thinking it would benefit us in some way and we find out it wasn't what we originally signed up for it. The question is, if it's not what we wanted, but what we needed.
     Many protagonists need to do something they don't want to do for there to be a story. Many give up something that matters to them, they learn something they can't quite believe. Goodman believed everyone he knew was wicked. Even his own wife. He never looked at any one the same. He believed he encountered the devil himself, a witch, hypocritical friends. He also believed it was a dream in the end. Then why couldn't he bring himself to get over it and move one? After all he knew these people, he loved his wife over anything. Simply because he believed whatever he saw. He knew there some type of truth to what he had witnessed.
      Today we learn things we wish we could unlearn. Ignorance truly is bliss. Alas, that's not reality. He may not encounter the Devil himself but we may encounter something worse. Doubt. Cheating rumors, money problems, your favorite boy-band breaking up.  It all leads to one thing, unhappiness. You're led into a world where you're thrown 6 feet under and your only way to get out is a plastic spoon. You change your antics, your thinking, yourself. Goodman left that night, only to return another one of the Devils' minions.



SORRY THIS TOTALLY WENT OFF PROMPT OMG :(((((