Young Goodman Brown Questions

1. What do you think Hawthorne's purpose was for writing this story? Hawthorne's purpose was to inform readers that not everyone may be how they appear. For example like Faith turned out to be a devil worshiper but in the outside she was a loving wife to Mr. Brown.   
2. 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? Faith's nick name does not fit her personality at all. Like it said in the story that she is a devil worshipper and is always arguing and fighting with Mr. Brown for no reason. Brown doesn't have Faith in her at all because he is already planning to kill her. He is simply phet up with all the things she has done to him.     
3. What do you think the pink ribbons signify? I think the pink ribbons signify there relationship because at one point they were tied together and slowly they are undoing everything that they have already started. At last the ribbon will untie and Faith will die.  
4. 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. "What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!"
   His head being turned back, he passed a crook of the road, and looking forward again, beheld the figure of a man, in grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree."
5. Who do you think the old man really is?  What textual clues tell you this? I think the old man is a very outgoing and a nice man that is only trying to help Brown while they are in the forest. For example, here is a text from the passage " And yet, though the elder person was as simply clad as the younger, and as simple in manner too, he had an indescribable air of one who knew the world, and would not have felt abashed at the governor's dinner-table,..".  
6. What does the staff represent?  Do you think the staff leads Brown onward or is the primary motivator Brown's own conscience/mind? The staff represents a good Christian group that is only there to help people.  I think that the staff is a primary motivator to get Brown lost in the woods instead of helping him. But they are first tricking him into thinking that they are good people but then they will end up killing Brown.
7. 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? His life would be different in many ways, one major thing that would make his life different is by not even thinking about killing Faith. He would still have his happy home and his happy life with his wife. He would still have Faith because the whole reason he thought of killing her/ leaving her is because she wondered into the forest. I think he would still have trusted his wife and townspeople.