Who Do You Allow To Sit On Your Shoulder Analysis

Who Do You Allow To Sit On Your Shoulder? As a child, I can remember cartoons that would have a character that was faced with a choice and they always had an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. Nathaniel Hawthorne is a famous writer who has written novels as well as short stories. Hawthorne writes a short story called, Young Goodman Brown that takes place in a Salem village with the main characters being: Goodman Brown, Faith, and The Old Man. In a village in Salem, Goodman Brown prepares to embark on a journey with evil intentions that leaves his wife, Faith at home. Faith does not want her husband to leave and proceeds to explain to him how she gets frightened when she is alone. He reassures her that no harm will come to her while he is away and then he takes his leave. Brown meets The Old Man during his journey and greets him as if he was planned to do so. The Old Man appears to look normal except he has a walking stick with an etched serpent on it. The Old Man tries to convince Brown to go with him, but Brown insists he will be returning to his village. Hawthorne wrote a powerful short story and by using symbolic meaning for both objects and people he helps support the allegorical tones throughout his story Young Goodman Brown. First, let’s begin by …show more content…
Throughout the story, Hawthorne uses something physical to represent an abstract. One good example is when Brown says, “My Faith is gone!” he is talking about his wife Faith, but allegorically speaking he is referring to how Brown has lost his faith in mankind (Arp 316). Another good example of allegory is when Brown says, “Faith kept me back awhile,” refers to his wife Faith, but allegorically speaking his is talking about how his good and faithful heart is the true reason for him delaying his journey down the evil path (Arp