Young Goodman Brown

In The Swimmer and in Young Goodman Brown both Nathaniel Hawthorne and John Cheever wrote romantic literature dealing with the issues and value of common natural man in society. They both show symbolisms in colors through imagery and through everyday items, but overall their themes and motifs are completely different. In The Swimmer the main character Neddy Merril swims around pools down the river of Lucinda which “..was a pale shade of green.” (p20)The pale shade of green represents nature and harmony down his path of life. When Ned swims through all the pools it represents his journey of life with his wife Lucinda. In paragraph 5 Ned “..knew that he would find friends along the way; friends would line the banks of the Lucinda River.” (p5) Through all the pools he meets friends and different people who show him how is life was with his wife Lucinda. In Young Goodman Brown the main character Goodman Brown has a wife named Faith and she would always wear pink ribbons in her hair that represents purity and innocence, but also her name Faith represents Goodman Browns faith in God. “ Poor little Faith.” (pg1) The theme of The Swimmer would be money can’t buy happiness and in Young Goodman Brown the theme is always to believe something or you will fall for anything. In the Swimmer he thought that his money and him being in middle to upper class group nothing bad could happen to him but his life went quickly into a decline. In Young Goodman Brown he had very little faith so he was very gullible into believing things that were not true.