Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story ‘Young Goodman Brown’ represents a testing journey of a man as he goes through life exploring the ideas of good and evil, sin and piety, god and devil. The journey of the couple in Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Veldt’ is similar in nature as they are confronted with the evils of a life of ease, a dependency on technology, and the psychological dysfunction that results from such a dependant life. In both of these stories, and the journeys of their characters imagery plays a vital role in lending the works a feeling of being alive and present. The use of imagery makes the reader feel as if they, too, are a part of the journey on which the characters are bound and that they, too, are making a choice, about their own life and journey.
In ‘Young Goodman Brown’ Hawthorne continuously juxtaposes the imagery of sin and evil with that of piety and innocence. The character represented as the devil carries a staff that looks like a serpent and it reminds one of the staff of Moses that turned into a serpent in many instances. Thus, Hawthorne puts together a symbol of evil with a holy person. This makes the situation complicated as one is unable to identify which paradigm to select; the confirmation of the serpent as an evil creature or the place of Moses in the Holy book as a man and messenger of God. Goodman Brown, himself, is caught in the same paradox as he is unable to decide which path to choose and which ideology to adopt. Yet, the purpose of the writer is not to instill wickedness in the hearts of the readers but to expose the double standards of a religious community and its members, as Ezghoul points out “…in ‘Young Goodman Brown’, The Puritan vision of the ” goodly procession ” which is referred to at the end of the story, leaves the Puritan idealism at a complete loss in the face of the overwhelming reality which defends variety and multi-ethnic participation which Brown, the embodiment of Puritanism, opposes as blasphemy.” (Zuraikat 2). Thus, the journey of a goodly procession is here juxtaposed with the journey of an evil procession as most of the pious people of town gather in the woods to convert more good people on the path of evil.
There are many other such images that are present in ‘Young Goodman Brown’ that places two ideological strains side by side, such as the pink ribbons of Faith, the flames, the blood-red; liquid in the rock basin, the closed-up trees, the darkness, etc. Out of all of these the image and symbol of the pink ribbon remains the most poignant “The ribbons are in fact an explicit link between two conceptions of Faith, connecting sweet little Faith of the village with the woman who stands at the Devil’s baptismal font.” (Levy 383). Here Levy makes it clear that the image of Faith as she stands looking after her husband as he begins on his journey and the image of her amidst the gather4ing in the forest, about to be converted to the devil, are both presented in a contrast between which her pink ribbons remains the most important link.
In ‘The Veldt,’ George and Lydia Hadley are on an inward journey of ridding their lives of the dependency on technology as they fear that the violence associated with such a lifestyle is getting out of control and may harm them. In this story, Bradbury uses the imagery of the fierce lions feeding on something, the hot scorching sun, the vultures, bones, and blood all of which highlight how immobility causes disturbances in the mind. All of these images are created by the couple’s children who refuse to let go of their nursery and eventually feed their own parents to the lions in order to keep the nursery running. Thus, in this story too the characters have to make a choice between two worlds, one supposedly evil yet comfortable and the other hard but good.
To sum up, both of the short stories explore the ideas of good and bad by presenting vivid imagery that highlights the effect of the story itself. The imagery helps the readers to identify the personal journey of the characters. The imagery in both stories is dark and violent and shows that human beings must go on their own journey in an exploration of what is good and what is bad and make their own choices.
Works Cited
Levy, Leo B. “The Problem of Faith in ‘Young Goodman Brown’.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 74.3 (1975): 375-387.
Zuraikat, Naim Ezghoul and Malek. “‘Young Goodman Brown’: The close lane.” International Journal of English and Literature 1.1 (2010): 001-006.