Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Analysis

The character in the story with the most obvious dual meaning name is Young Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith. An example of “Faiths” duplicity is when Young Goodman Brown says, “My love and my Faith, of all nights in the year, this one I must tarry from thee.” Brown is moving away from his wife and losing faith in his fellow peers. Another example is when the devil takes Faith and brown exclaims, “My Faith is gone!” Not only is he saying that his wife

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. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote, “ he looked back, and saw the head of Faith peeping after him, with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons” (Hawthorne 1). This quote helps understand more about Faith. Though she is kind and beautiful, that does not mean that she is shielded from the harm and sin of the outside world. Meant to be a strong interpretation of peace and love, her character’s symbols completely contradict with what Hawthorne had previously intended to represent her. This story gives insight into the twisted mind of Hawthorne and a glimpse into his

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. Oates unexpectedly adds allusions to fairy tales throughout the story that suggest a much deeper meaning than the initial realistic interpretation. The use of fairy tales adds a vitally important element to the story that evil can be lurking in unexpected places.

Perception. The way you interpret and see someone or something. Everything, living and nonliving, can be perceived in a different way. No two people can possibly view the same object in the exact same manner, or perspective. Events, like crimes for example, are not perceived in the exact same way by two people, and should not be heavily relied on. Perceptions often turn out faulty, and can prove to be false or in error. A person’s perception of something is formed based on a variety of situations including the person’s emotional state, beliefs and morals, and level of interest in the person or situation. Multiple examples, including real life situations and occurrences both in the short story Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne and

“Young Goodman Brown” is a story about a man who challenges his faith in himself and in the community in which he resides.

Nathaniel Hawthorne short stories, “The Birthmark”, “Young Goodman Brown” and “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” demonstrates the reality of imperfection. In the “Young Goodman Brown” Goodman Brown is under the impression the everyone he knows are good and respectable people till one day he discovers that they were evil. Even his wife, Faith when he finds her pink ribbons at the Salem Witch Trials. Aylmer in “The Birthmark” becomes obsessive over his wife, Georgina only flaw. Her birthmark. In “Dr. Heidegger's experiment”, Dr. Heidegger uses his old friends as an experiment by giving them an elixir that will make them young again. The symbols play a big role in describing the desire of perfection.

In a dream, what we perceive as reality and what is a cloaked ambiguity of complicated emotions, becomes like a perfectly swirled rainbow sherbet. Therefore, the distinction is no longer an issue, and what we select to believe becomes the arbitrator, or waffle cone. If an emotional event can be manipulated and construed by how our intellect perceives reality-the conclusive processed version, then the singularity of our emotions derives from what we subconsciously desire to believe. In the case of "Young Goodman Brown", the more important question is not whether or not it was a dream- which is not important, but rather what emotional crises formulate his yearning to leave his "Faith" in the beginning, or better yet, has faith already left him?

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. Throughout the story, there are many instances: the illogical time and settings, the similarity between Arnold and Connie and the unrealistic events show that the meeting between Connie and Arnold Friend is a dream. The dream is also a preparation for Connie before she steps onto the stage of being an adult.

(pg. 453)” Young Goodman Brown is a man living in the puritan era who has a wife and family, and is deep in his Christian faith. Young Goodman Brown lived in a town that is all connected to through the local church. Early in the story Young Goodman brown would set out to meet a person who would later be labeled as the devil by one of the locals. Young Goodman brown would have a vision of everyone in his community that would show him their wicked sins. “On the Sabbath day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he would not listen because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain. (pg. 456)” Brown would grow with the idea that all his loved ones are “sinful” and he would be somewhat of a recluse, by setting himself apart from the community, family, and church. The story states that he would die this way, and hardly anyone would come to his grave. We see that with Young Goodman Brown, even though he was sound in his faith, he lost what it is that made him feel free. In a since, if his dream was true, then he lost the point of redemption, and could not handle the truth. In his story, the truth did not set him free, but this caused him to be a slave wasting away in his prison called

Young Goodman Brown begins with believing that all people high up in society have never walked with the devil- have never sinned. He even claims that he will be “the first of the name of Brown that ever took this path and kept,” though later revealed that strays far from the truth. As he finds out all these people he placed on a golden pedestal, merely have equal to, if not, more sins than himself, he begins to change and lose his faith in humanity along with innocence to the world. With the losing of his Faith’s ribbons, he no longer cares what others believe about him, yelling, “You may as well fear me.” When morning comes, Nathaniel Hawthorne compares him to a “bewildered man” that cannot view anyone the same way. 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

In today’s society the general attitude towards an individual is conform or be an outcast. It is seen in schools where people who do not fit into specific cliques become outcasts, the weird people. It is seen in the work place as well. People have conformed to standards set by society simply because society has said to do so. Society asks people to change themselves to fit in. However, people do not have to conform to the standards set by society.

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.

In the beginning of this story Young Goodman Brown informs his wife he is going on a late night journey. After he leaves he finds himself feeling bad. He says, “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 tonight.” (para 7) This is illustrating that Goodman Brown knows that it was wrong of him to lie to her and leave her so late in the night yet he does it anyways. Once he enters the forest he states that “Faith kept him back a while.” (para 12) Brown is not only referring to his wife Faith but his actual faith. This shows the audience that our faith does hold us back from some temptation but it isn’t always strong enough to resist us from evil in everyday life.

Nathanial Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” start the story at sunset, which makes me anticipate something dark is about to occur. From reading other stories by Hawthorn, I expected the story to focus on puritan society and early American life. I found that this story was focused during the seventeenth century, during the Salem witch trials, and the rivalry between the Quakers and the puritans. Hawthorne explores Brown’s inner struggle with hypocrisy, his faith, and his own demons. Hawthorn uses elements of the era his ancestors lived through to attract the reader’s attention to the evil in humans, because of this the reader travels the same evil road through the forest with Goodman. Through the journey, it makes us think about how strong our faith is and where it lies. With Goodman, it was with his wife Faith, where it seems safe and cheerful. This makes me wonder if this is the same struggle that Hawthorne faced while was writing this story.

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. Living in a community with all the people around you loves you is the true heaven as the story describes. Goodman knows the people in his community are good and he has a relationship with them like Deacon Gookin, the judge and the lady Goody Cloyse, the lady that taught him when he was going to the church when he was young.