Justin Wray English Composition 2 Mr. Eustis 5/28/00 The Theme of "Young Goodman Brown" What is theme? Theme is what the author is saying about the subject of the story. In "Young Goodman Brown" the subject of the story is hypocrisy. In "Young Goodman Brown", Hawthorne writes in detail how hypocrisy can change a person for the worse. In the opening pages of the story you can see how hypocrisy is already starting to change Goodman Brown …showed first 75 words of 1040 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1040 total…up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!" So in other words don't look to god is what Hawthorne is saying. In conclusion "Young Goodman Brown" is a story about hypocrisy and how it came corrupt the purest of peoples minds if they choose to let it in. This story also shows that even though puritans all may act "pure" on the outside, they aren't really as pure as everybody makes them out to be .