Throughout the years, literary devices have been utilized by many authors when writing their stories. Authors have used allegories, symbolism, tone and other devices in their writings to emphasize the theme or lesson they want to share to readers around the world. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, by Joyce Carol Oates and “Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the authors used many devices to get their point across. One of the many devices was symbolism. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, Connie is put through an ordeal and has to chose the right decision for herself and her family. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman searches truth within the town of Salem, and takes a journey through the woods. Both Connie and …show more content…
Where people will believe what they want to believe and give too much trust to others. Like every young person, they also believe that they can take on the world. Teenagers don’t realize that growing up is a big factor in surviving life. In the beginning of the story, Connie is a young teenager, who hasn’t matured yet. She is arrogant and disrespectful to her parents. It’s towards the end of the story, when it’s too late, she is put in a decision where she has to grow up and make the most mature decision in her life. Not only did Connie learn how to grow up, but she also learned the value of family. Arnold Friend, who is not so friendly, becomes aggressive and menacing, threatens to hurt the people she loves most. ‘“... Honey: you can come out and we’ll drive away… But if you don’t come out we’re gonna wait till your people come home and then they’re all going to get it”’ (86). Connie has to choose whether to go with Arnold and keep her family safe, or risking them in return for the possibility of saving her own family. When reading this story, readers learn the importance of growing up and how family can never be taken for …show more content…
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about faith, trust, betrayal, and the meaning of fear. Goodman Brown goes off on this journey to test his faith. Every time he continues into his journey, he is stopped by the people he believed to be as faithful. The first man he sees, he thinks of him as a demon, “...traveller was about fifty years old, apparently the same rank of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing a considerable resemblance to him...and yet, thought the elder person was a simply clad as the younger, and as simple in manner too”(Hawthorne 254). Nathaniel describes this man as if he could be related to Brown, but it is interpreted that this man is a old version of Brown, from the future. The staff that the man is carrying, is representative to Satan, in biblical terms. In the Bible, Satan is portrayed as a cunning snake that tricked Eve to eating the Forbidden Fruit and who tries to trick Jesus during his forty days of fasting. In this dream like state, after seeing an old woman and the Deacon of the church, Brown finally goes to the gathering. This is when he thinks he sees his own wife, Faith. He immediately thinks that Faith is now on the path of evil when her pink ribbon floats down: “But something fluttered lightly down through the air, and caught on the branch of the tree. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon”(258). Some say that the ribbon can represent when Brown thinks Faith loses her faith in God. Also,
Hawthorn’s naming of Brown’s wife “Faith” has a duel mean. Brown’s “Faith” represents his spiritual faith along with his loving wife who he characterizes as being “a blessed angel on earth,” (526). When Brown exclaims “My Faith is gone!” (531) not only is Brown referring to the fact that he believes he may have lost his dear wife, but he loses his spiritual faith and the faith in others as more is unfolded on his journey to the communion. When he encounters his wife the next day, unsure as to whether or not the previous nights events occurred he “looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting,” (534). This experience Brown had transforms him from being a man strong to “a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man,” (535).
In the short story “Young Goodman Brown” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the symbolism was used throughout the story. Hawthorne used symbolism to create another world of ideas concerning Goodman Brown’s faith. The symbolism in this short story shows points in Goodman Brown where he begins to make comparisons between his religious beliefs and the evil he is “witnessing.” Brown’s view on people and life becomes conflicted when he starts to realize that there is evil all around him. Nathaniel Hawthorne portrayed symbolism in this short story by giving his main character the name “Goodman Brown and naming Goodman’s wife “Faith”, the pink ribbons in her hair, the path Goodman chooses to take, the forest he goes through, the staff his companion carries and the significance of the townspeople he discovers in the forest all contribute to the symbolism that Hawthorne is delivering in this story.
Connie does not want to be the nice and innocent pretty girl. She wants to be known for being very sexual. In the story she makes fun of her sister June because she is very modest and not sexual and causes conflict with their family. Also June is overweight twenty-four years old and still living at home. But she also does chores and does them without complaining to her parents. While Connie is a way from home she has two totally different ways of acting. Be that as it may, Arnold friend ‘s landing in her home drives her two sides to consolidate fiercely. As it were, Connie is not completely sexual until Arnold's interruption into her home until then; her sexuality was something outside of her "actual" self, the self that she permitted her family to see. Arnold also has a friend named Ellie. While Arnold drives up to Connie’s house Ellie stays in the car and she listens to music while Arnold speaks to Connie. Also Connie’s mother shows a large amount of frustration towards her and the way she acts and dresses. Connie and her mother fight constantly. But towards the end of the story when Connie is attacked my Arnold she cries out to her
Conflict and symbolism in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, Hawthorne in this story portrays these two elements that enhance the way the story is written. The story “Young Goodman Brown” first takes place in a small town with brown and his wife faith. Then in the story brown leaves faith to go in an adventure that he would later wish he hadn’t gone in. Brown takes a journey through part of the woods that are really scary and comes across the devil himself to later find out that faith was evil and that many from his town were also evil and had a secret evil organization or cult. Through the use of conflict and symbolism, Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” portrays what Brown’s journey represents.
The main conflict Connie faces in the story is Arnold Friend himself, a satanic figure preying on the young and naive. Initially Friend seems desirable to Connie, he seems like a suave mature figure, from afar, but as he draws closer to her Connie begins to see his flaws and what lies
In Joyce Carol Oates’s short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” the author sets the feeling of danger and uncertainty stemming from events occurring throughout the story with the utilization of themes from Thomas C. Foster’s “ How to Read Literature Like a Professor” specifically with references to seasons, the bible, and significant symbolisms.
Written two centuries apart, “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “Where Are You Going; Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates are two seemingly different stories. However, if looked at closely, several elements can be tied together. Each story has a similar point of view, but the story is told from two different perspectives. Several themes are unique to the stories, but deep within similarities can be found. The authors conclude their stories in two different ways, but the endings are somewhat the same. These two stories contain elements that are obviously contrasting, yet comparable at the same time.
The main symbol used by Hawthorne throughout the story is Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith. Faith has a more of a significance in the story than just Brown’s wife, she represents actual faith and purity. There is a conflict going on inside of Brown’s mind and it is if he should “keep the faith” or not. In the beginning, Faith urges Brown to stay home and go in the morning, but he disregards her and keeps going. This is a metaphor for Brown leaving his religious faith. Goodman Brown questions if his wife has lost faith in him and he asks her, ‘“dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married?”’ Throughout the story, Faith stays as a symbol of Brown’s faith. The devil and Goodman Brown finally meet and the devil questions Brown about being late. Brown being a little afraid responds with, “Faith kept me back awhile,” Faith physically tried to hold Brown back and figuratively talking about his faith in the religion. His wife could have prevented Brown from talking to the devil, but failed. Meeting with the devil evidently shows that Brown is willing to see the evil side of his religion.
Connie is very much like many teenagers in our society today. Connie found joy in leaving and hanging out with her friends at drive-in restaurants, listening to music and daydreaming about boys. “The restaurant was shaped like a big bottle, though squatter than a real bottle, and on its cap was a revolving figure of a grinning boy holding a hamburger aloft”(370). Overall her pleasure, she discovered in both of these things had zero to do with
There are some stories that capture the reader’s attention and which keep us riveted from the beginning to the ultimate line of the tale. ‘’Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’’, a short story written by Joyce Carol Oates in 1966, is one of those. Inspired by the mythic song of the phenomenal singer Bob Dylan entitled ‘’It’s all over Now, Baby Blue,’’ the author describes the main character as a 15-year-old girl named ‘’ Connie’’, who is obsessed by her beauty and does not get along with her family. The heroine of the story ‘’Connie,’’ engages in an adolescent rebellion against her entourage by acting to appear older. This increases her vulnerability through the story and at the end
“Young Goodman Brown,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835, is a short story about a man named young Goodman Brown who leaves his wife, Faith, to go on an errand into the woods with the devil. Faith begs Goodman Brown to not leave her alone, but he chooses to go anyways. This short story shows many signs of symbolism, such as the forest, the devil, the staff, the pink ribbons, Faith, sin, and guilt. These symbols help in understanding the story of young Goodman Brown and his unconscious struggle with his religion. The trip not only takes Brown onto a journey of sadness, but also into the deepest parts of his soul. Goodman Brown wishes to enter the dark forest of sin, to satisfy his
In Joyce Carol Oate’s, “Where are you going, Where have you been”, a young teen by the name of Connie is in a stage of what appears to be rebellion. Along with many other teens, Connie’s parent’s oblivion to what she does outside of the house allows it to continue and worsen. Since Connie not being held accountable for her actions, it leads her down paths of destruction. Are Connie’s bad decisions really her fault? Typically, teens do not rebel for fun but there is a deeper meaning behind the actions. In this story, Connie goes out and rebels in search of better things than what she has at home.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne introduces Goodman Brown, who doubts himself and reiterates his false confidence to himself repeatedly. His struggle between the evil temptations, the devil, and the proper church abiding life, is a struggle he does not think he can handle. This story is about a man who challenges his faith in himself and in the community in which he resides. Goodman Brown must venture on a journey into the local forest, refuse the temptations of the devil, and return to the village before the sunrise.
Symbolism is a literary technique that is used to clarify the author's intent. Sometimes it is used to great effect, while other times it only seems to muddle the meaning of a passage. In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne uses objects and people as symbols to allegorically reveal his message to the reader.
Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism throughout his short story Young Goodman Brown to impact and clarify the theme of good people sometimes doing bad things. Hawthorne uses a variety of light and dark imagery, names, and people to illustrate irony and different translations. Young Goodman Brown is a story about a man who comes to terms with the reality that people are imperfect and flawed and then dies a bitter death from the enlightenment of his journey through the woods. Images of darkness, symbolic representations of names and people and the journey through the woods all attribute to Hawthorne's theme of good people sometimes doing bad things.