“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and “Young Goodman Brown” are two short stories, though written two eras apart in the past by two different authors, are quite similar. Both stories have many references to evil along with a revolution in the main character’s life and therefore explore common themes as well as meanings.
The first similarity between “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and “Young Goodman Brown” that comes to the readers’ mind is the idea of the existence of unknown devils in the stories. In both stories, the devil manipulates the characters and lures them in making the wrong decision. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, one possibility is that Connie is having a nightmare in which Arnold Friend plays the role of a master in disguise. He wheedles Connie and insists on her going for a ride with him. Moreover, Arnold is also a …show more content…
When it comes to literature work, the discrepancy between a character’s outer and inner world is seen quite often. In “Young Goodman Brown”, it is likely that the stranger whom he meets on his way is no one but the dark side of himself. The forest surrounding Salem village symbolizes the unknown and Goodman Brown finds himself drawn to it. As for “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Connie also has two sides in her own self. Oates describes that “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk that could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head, her mouth which was pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out…her bracelet”. Connie appears to be a self-confident girl to the outside world, but after she meets Arnold Friend, she realizes how vulnerable and innocent she is. Indeed, her beauty couldn’t protect her from harm and gives her what she
The first similarity between “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and “Young Goodman Brown” that comes to the readers’ mind is the idea of the existence of unknown devils in the stories. In both stories, the devil manipulates the characters and lures them in making the wrong decision. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, one possibility is that Connie is having a nightmare in which Arnold Friend plays the role of a master in disguise. He wheedles Connie and insists on her going for a ride with him. Moreover, Arnold is also a …show more content…
When it comes to literature work, the discrepancy between a character’s outer and inner world is seen quite often. In “Young Goodman Brown”, it is likely that the stranger whom he meets on his way is no one but the dark side of himself. The forest surrounding Salem village symbolizes the unknown and Goodman Brown finds himself drawn to it. As for “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Connie also has two sides in her own self. Oates describes that “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk that could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head, her mouth which was pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out…her bracelet”. Connie appears to be a self-confident girl to the outside world, but after she meets Arnold Friend, she realizes how vulnerable and innocent she is. Indeed, her beauty couldn’t protect her from harm and gives her what she