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Use Of Literary Devices In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been

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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,

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