The Goodness Of Mankind

I have decided to write my essay about how the different pieces of symbolism and the theme of Young Goodman Brown relates to what happened in America on September 11, 2001 and also to my own life in general. First of all, the theme that I picked up on from this story pertains to the idea that while it seems Goodman Brown may have resisted evil in the end, he lost something that can never be regained; his belief in the goodness of mankind. This particular theme touches exactly upon what happened in America on September eleventh. However, before I begin to discuss these things, I would like to talk about the symbolism seen throughout the story and what it means.

The first piece of symbolism in the story was Hawthorne's play on the word Faith. While even though it was Brown's wife's name, Hawthorne consistently used it in the sense that it had to do with Brown's faith in God also.

[Portrait of Juan Tizol(?) and Lawrence Brown(?), ...

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Beadle & Brown depart (LOC)

For example, when Goodman Brown says to his "love and my Faith"� that "this one night I must tarry away from thee"� (164), he is not only talking to his wife, but to his "faith"� in God. He is venturing into the woods to meet with the Devil, and by doing so, he leaves his unquestionable faith in God with his wife. When Brown finally does meet up with the Devil, he says that the reason why he was late was because "Faith kept me back awhile."� (165) This statement has a double meaning because his wife physically kept him from being on time for his meeting with the devil, but his faith in God psychologically delayed his meeting with the devil.

One major irony in the story is one that deals with Brown's belief that he...