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Young Goodman Brown Rhetorical Analysis

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For many years, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing of “Young Goodman Brown” has been used frequently when discussing the topic of a moral allegory. This story is both a literal and metaphorical journey of a man who is walking to a spiritual crisis, with the devil himself. The use of symbolism and imagery help to set the tone for the reader, when going along with Goodman Brown on his “soul-searching” journey. Herman Melville once wrote that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” has only been improving over time. He said “like wine, was only improving in flavor and body.” This story leads to modern thinkers. It teaches the readers and students to find a deeper meaning, and go beyond the literal meaning. Goodman Brown investigates man’s inborn …show more content…

The beauty of reading is, everyone, using the same words, is able to form a picture in their mind of the characters, setting, weather, etc without a picture being on the page. Imagery is a very powerful and essential writing tool. Nathaniel Hawthorne robustly used words that helped to not only read the text, but also see the text. Throughout the text, Nathaniel Hawthorne frequently used words like sunset, night, darkness, nightfall, and midnight to enforce the image. When one thinks of these words, one immediately thinks of daytime turning into night time, dark, gloomy, eerie, quiet, or even unknown. This was exactly how Young Goodman Brown felt along his journey in trying to find his pure inner self. His journey to find his inner self, started right in the beginning, “Young Goodman Brown came forth at sunset into the street at Salem Village. He was confused, he didn’t know where he was, and he felt like he was getting taken over by the “bad side”. The devils took him in and tried to change his beliefs. When the reader envisions the short text, they probably have a spooky Halloween-like vision in their mind. When Nathaniel Hawthorne wanted the reader to know that Goodman Brown was going back to his home, with his wife Faith and all of the Puritan people, he used words like sunshine and morning. Both of these words portray an image of light and happiness. Everything is luminous in the daylight. Young Goodman Brown is now able to understand who he really is, and what his objective is in the rest of his

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