Alice Walker's Young Goodman Brown: Community Analysis

Community cannot for long feed on itself; it can only flourish with the coming of others from beyond”- Howard Thurman. The role of community in literature is used to question the meaning of community, to explore conflict and further analyse the cultural semiotics of a community.In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, community creates a segregation between personal semiotics and communal tradition.Communities require the evolution of the forbidden to forge the prospering of cultural semiotics and acceptance of ‘otherness’ influences.This essay explores the aspect of exclusion within a community; continuing to analyse the setting. Finally, this essay concludes by portraying the possibility of new perspectives
In the story, Young Goodman Brown comes from a puritan community that has a strong sense of dystopia. Everyone must be the same and have same faith. However, just outside the edge of the community lays a darkened forest demonstrating the role of the devil , the role of otherness. Yet within all communities come curious individuals such as Goodman Brown who search for meaning beyond the boundaries of his community. Hawthorne notes “ he took a dark a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest”(Hawthorne, 1). This goes to show that the forest is seen as a place that one should not enter for bad things lie within this devilish outside world for “ a devilish Indian may be behind every tree”(1). Hawthorne’s setting illustrates the role of otherness by painting a dark and frowned upon outside world. The setting attempts to limit the characters to the boundaries of their community through the use of eerie surroundings. Regardless of this setback the main character continues to feel ostracised and thus searches the otherness that surrounds his everyday life. The community of salem is holding onto their traditional outlooks on otherness, pushing away the things they can not relate to, the outside world. But, as a community they would be stronger if they were to be more inclusive and took the time to learn from these beyond
He wanted to follow his curiosity, to explore a new perspective of the world outside of the community in hope of building his character and most importantly to test his faith. Despite his longing to discover the unknown, Goodman Brown had his doubts to pursue this new pathway. When he first enters the forest, he comes across a figure who addresses the prolongation of his journey to which Goodman Brown responds‘“faith had kept me back awhile”(Hawthorne, 2). Community provides a sense of belonging to each of its members regardless of the belief of each individual causing him to be anxious to commence his journey. He knew the journey would completely ostracize himself from the community by going to explore the otherness and had to take his time to follow his curiosity. However, he still believed in his faith in his community as that was the only place for which he belonged. He continues to follow some traditions while on his journey when he “with heaven above and faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil”(5). Due to the fact that communities are imagined to meet the aspirations of each member of a community it is rather difficult to have a well functioning utopian society. However, Young Goodman Brown wishes to explore the outside world to learn new pathways or new experiences that he can apply to his community. Despite this, it would only be possible if