Similarities Between Young Goodman Brown And Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

He takes a different approach, though. Young Goodman Brown has an encounter with the devil in a dream. At the time we do not know it is a dream, but Young Goodman Brown is talking to the devil who is trying to convince him that people like his father, grandfather, and his priests and deacons, etc. have come to him to seek some sort of revenge. Making Young Goodman Brown think that all of these other people have also done the things like sin, shocks him, but also makes him feel like it is not as bad if he does sin. Before anything goes wrong Young Goodman Brown wakes up from this awful dream, but now he is questioning everything and everyone.

The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was written by the author Joyce Carol Oates in 1966. Oates describes her idea for the story after briefly reading an article about the real-life murderer, Charles Schmid, who lured and murdered three teenage girls (Kirszner & Mandell 523). She uses this idea to create the character, Arnold Friend, and his victim, Connie. Connie is a typical teenage girl portrayed as naïve and self-centered. The short story appears realistic, given that the conflict in the story is based off of real events.

Brown could not still believe this truth, but he kept following this unfaithful man into the woods. As they kept going, Goodman Brown met a woman who taught him his catechism. When he met this woman, he was afraid of her judging him. He was scared that this woman will think that he was going through the wood with unfaithful old man. However, he did not have to worry about her because she was as unfaithful like him.

The word that stands out to me the most is Goodman’s wife’s name, Faith. Her name implicates a religious theme, good versus evil. Faith tries to talk Goodman from leaving on his journey, but he

The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is about a teenage girl named Connie who is in the mist of her adolescent rebellion. She wants to prove her maturity to others and herself. In the story, Oates describes that Connie always lets her mind flow freely in between her daydream. She even creates and keeps dreaming about her ideal male figure in her mind to make her happy and satisfied. Oates allows the reader to step into Connie’s “dream world” through the appearance of Arnold Friend.

The story is taking place in Goodman Brown’s thoughts, “What a wretch am I, to leave her on such an errand! She talks of dreams, too. Methought, as she spoke, there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done to-night. . .” Goodman brown feels guilty for the journey he is about to embark on, and he fears that Faith might know that he is about to take a journey into his darkest thoughts. Most people have thoughts, and fears they don't want to face.

Faith represented Goodman Brown's faith. He than loses his faith after going on a journey with Satan himself. Satan shows him that the most respectful people were evil. The pink ribbons represents there is evil in good. Even after that did not affect him till “something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree.

Web. 2 May. 2012. The research of “Young Goodman Brown,” explains the various images found in Young Goodman Brown. Some of them clarifies the author criticisms are the Salem Village, the pink ribbons on Faith’s hat, the fellow traveler, the staff, and using of the term “faith”, and the forest.

Joyce, like in most of her works, depicts what actually takes place in contemporary society. This has been apart of her work which was influenced by the hard times she spends during her early life. Her work is developed using strong themes to depict the contemporary issues in the society at that time. Where Are You Going, Where Have you been? has been based on fantasy versus reality, the search for independence, and the sexuality to show some of the issues which use experience in the world.

With many mysteries shrouding “Young Goodman Brown” to this day, it is understandable that the meaning behind the story had to deal with Hawthorne himself and his dreary past. Hawthorne represented himself as the strong symbolic character of Goodman Brown, not only this, but Hawthorne also used the real names of two of the Salem witches that his grandfather had helped kill. Love bonds Goodman Brown to his beautiful wife, Faith, whose name has many literary meanings. Goodman enters the dark woods where he meets the presumable devil, which causes hallucinations and dreams of his family and loved ones, all of which he is seeing as despicable and awful human beings. Faith’s name and body itself is a strong allegory for losing will in not only humanity, but also that of God.

“The knowledge that makes us cherish innocence makes innocence unattainable” (Howe). Everyone has innocence, however, the paths taken and decisions made throughout life are what destroy it. In relation to innocence, the short story, “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, displays the situational archetype, the inevitable loss of innocence. Many situations show the character, Young Goodman Brown’s, loss of innocence; such as the decision he makes to meet the devil, as well as the experience he takes part in with the holy people of Salem to worship the devil, and finally, the idea that if this is all a dream, the inner evil inside of Young Goodman Brown. Young Goodman Brown’s journey begins as he decides to make arrangements to meet

This keeps with him, never able to return to an innocent state or return to the belief that everyone has purity in them, dying with “no hopeful verse upon his tombstone.” Young Goodman Brown had innocence to the world and believed holy people were without sin, but goes on a journey where his Faith loses her pink ribbons and learns the evils of humankind, losing all faith in

Many people do not like to deal with negative things, and usually completely ignore any aspects of a person or object that are negative without even realizing it. In Young Goodman Brown, Goodman Brown perceives his wife as perfect: “Well, she’s a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven” (page 7). Brown perceives his wife as a perfect and completely pure figure, but he does not realize that no person or object can be perfect, and everything has a small aspect of evil and wrongdoing in it. Brown in a sense sees Faith as a celebrity. This created the vision that Faith’s life was completely perfect, and she had everything she could ever ask for, but in reality, her life was pretty far from it.

The story of ‘Young Goodman Brown’, is a story that is much deeper than what it appears to be on the surface. On it's surface, the story appears as nothing more than a tale of a man who experiences a hellish event. Upon further analysis, the story is a much deeper allegoric tale of the importance of faith, and how easily a person can be made or broken by an event. The ending of the story does put the readers mind at rest because in fact, it was just a dream. " A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did be become, from the night of that fearful dream".

The conflict between Good and the Evil takes many forms. It is the eternal conflict since the beginning of time and it continues until the end of time. The human nature is the one being tested in the conflict and the winner will reap it all. In the story of young Goodman Brown it shines the light on this fight between the human nature and the evil powers, Starting with Young Goodman Brown in his life as a true Christian as defined by the story resembles of a man without a sin with a lovely wife that cares about him and have a happy life. This resembles similar to the first creation of Adam and Eve, the true purity and happiness and the pink ribbons represent the bond between the purity of the soul and the human nature in the first creation and his wife faith represent the faith in God between Adam and Eve and God.