Young Goodman Brown Q & A

• Q:What do you think Hawthorne's purpose was for writing this story?
• A:I believe the purpose of this story written by Hawthorne was to show anyone can appear to be good and kind in every way. However, everyone seems to have a dark side  in their life and that’s what he’s showing throughout the story  
• Q:Hawthorne states that Brown's wife is "aptly named" Faith.  After reading the story, do you agree?  Does Faith's name fit her personality?  Does Brown have true faith in her?
• A: Brown’s wife named Faith seemed to fit her personality good. She didn’t really appear in the story. However when she finally did she upsetted Brown and he lost his “faith”.
• Q:What do you think the pink ribbons signify?
• A:The pink ribbons signify his faith because whenever his wife had it on it showed he believed in her and had trust towards her and the minister, Goody Cloyse, and Deacon Gookin. However when he sees the pink ribbons fall from the sky he looses his own faith completely. 
• Q:Was everything Brown witnessed real, a figment of his imagination, something conjured by evil, or a dream?  Support your answer with passages from the text.
• A: This passage was conjured with evil. When the elderly man approached him he told him “I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker women... And it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot..”. This is showing the elderly man knew about Brown and his family although, they had never met. 
• Q:Who do you think the old man really is?  What textual clues tell you this?
• A:The old man is really the devil. “Still, they might have been taken for father and son.” This shows that the old man seems like a regular human being. “But the only thing about him, that could be fixed upon as remarkable, was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought, that it might almost be seen to twist and wiggle itself like a living serpent.” This shows that the only strange thing about the man was his staff which the devils has, and this shows a significant sign about who the old man really is.
• Q:What does the staff represent?  Do you think the staff leads Brown onward or is the primary motivator Brown's own conscience/mind?
• A:The staff represent the evil things Brown will see throughout his walk into the woods. I believe Brown is the primary motivator towards his own mind because, he has a feeling not to follow the old man however, he himself is the one that keeps following him. Although, he knows not to, he somehow continued to do it and no one is actually forcing him.
• Q:If Brown had not ventured into the forest, how would his life be different?  If he'd stayed home, would Brown still have Faith?  Would he still trust his wife and his fellow townspeople?
• A:If Brown never went into the forest he would have never thought people had betrayed him. If he would have stayed he would still have faith in everyone even his own wife. He still would have trust towards his wife and fellow townspeople because, he would have never seen them in the “evil ceremony” they appeared to be at.