Young Goodman Brown: Symbols, Imagery

Symbol: FaithTheme: Young Goodman brown lost his direction and his way and religious believes byquestioning his faith and not having it to guide him.Faith in this story is a pretty straight forward symbol in which his wife is really a symbolismfor his religious faith. Early in the story it is established that Brown is very new to idea offaith, “we but three months married•, and is not yet completely convinced that he isready to just believe. Brown, being new to the religion or having some reservations aboutit, has decided to take a journey in which he seeks to reinforce his believes and comeback stronger to his religion and faith. He believes that his marriage is so strong that thereisn’t a question that he will come back and be stronger than then when he left. Thesymbolism of faith and how he views her in the beginning of the story and the end showshow his journey has impacted his believe and faith in a very negative way.. The crook in the road is a great use of imagery that shows how doubt and insecurity canmake us lose our path without us even noticing when it happens. Brown looks back out offear of the devil being behind him and loses his way, coming into contact with the devilhimself. Had he just had faith he wouldn’t have had a need to look back and wouldhave taken the right path. The symbols and images tie together to guide the reader,through Young Goodman Browns eyes, though a roller coaster of emotions that lead themain character from a confident and faithful believer to one that doubts his path becauseof the actions others have taken and his inability to separate his believe from the sins ofothers.