Young Goodman Brown Question 1

Young Goodman Brown represents humans and human nature. He is tempted to enter the forest, which symbolizes sin. He becomes more and more curious until he finally snaps and ascends further and further into the dark forest. The man who meets Young Goodman Brown in the forest is the devil and his staff a serpent. Goodman Brown becomes more and more curious about what is happening around the forest and decides to fall into the devils temptation. He has lost touch with his Faith and faith. But the devil draws nearer and nearer to Goodman Brown, now teasing his vision. Young Goodman Brown snaps out of it and begins to pray to the heavens when all of a sudden fire has broken out on the trees and a huge black cloud blocks the night sky. Goodman Brown has allowed himself to be engulfed by the evil. In the midst of everything he picks out the priest and other townspeople that he has met at the communion table rioting at the tavern.  Amongst all of the chaos Goodman Brown is drawn out of the hectic-ness and hears his dear Faith and her pink ribbon, but it is far too late to turn back to her. He has seen too much and done far enough. “Faith! Faith!” he yells, but it is too late to save himself.  Then Young Goodman Brown awakes from his terrible dream and is not so much a “Good-Man” anymore. He has been consumed by what he witnessed from his dream. He has realized that people are all tempted and that in someway or another each and every person falls into temptation in one way or another. The theme of the story is to hold on to your Faith and to not fall into the temptations the devil throws your way because there will definitely be bumps and troubles in your way through life.

Soldiers' Home

Krebs uses repetition to escape the family home, at least for a while. When asked about the war from his family he quickly avoids the question by either staying neutral while not answering or answering with a sarcastic answer such as “I’ll try and be a good boy for you”. He has a very difficult time being paired back into his childhood home after the war. Even the girls were different. Yes the girls especially. They “grew up”, something that Krebs never got to do on his own. Krebs was forced to grow up because of the war. Krebs wanted to look at the girls but nothing more. The thought of being social made Krebs very nervous and paranoid. He always thought that they would bring up the war, every single one of them. That’s what he thought anyway because of the patterns he noticed. They all had “hair cut short,” had “sweaters and shirt waists with round Dutch collars,” and had “silk stockings and flat shoes.” Yes, Krebs noticed these odd patterns. And he did not like them. He wanted the German girls back. Krebs was uncomfortable with speaking, thinking, and even looking at people- even his own mother. Krebs tended to lie to his mother to comfort her into thinking that he was alright after the war. She knew that something was off with him, but didn’t know the true reason. She once asked him if he loved her and he simply said no. Krebs was truthful with his no because he really doesn’t know how to love, and if he does he is too scared to attach to someone. His mother was obviously discouraged and sobbing. He then lied to her and told her he did. Lying was something that Krebs has taken a knack for. Krebs has come to realization that lying may be easier than dealing with the reality, the fact that he has been to war and seen things that are unimaginable.

Story of an Hour

The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin in 1894. Chopin was a literary genius when it came to embedding clues that foreshadow the ending. Chopin either states the clues directly or sneakily hides them within the text from her story.

The most apparent element of foreshadowing is the very first sentence. Yes, Mrs. Mallard had “heart trouble”. Of course it isn’t just a small tumor or anything like that. It is heart disease, heart disease that was caused by her husband.

The fifth paragraph is also filled with foreshadowing. With such intense details such as “new spring life”, “breath of rain”, and “countless sparrows”. Mrs. Mallard is noticing every detail of her surroundings. She is not struck with guilt or pain from her husband’s death, but rather the opposite. She is filling her life with happy thoughts. This tells us that Mrs. Mallard had a hard love life and that she never truly loved him.
“She knew that she would weep again,” and she was right. This single line out of the entire short story reveals to the readers that her remorse will return. By Mrs. Mallard telling us that she will “weep again” we can infer that Mr. Mallard will come back into her life.

From every foreshadowing clue throughout the story, before the reader gets to the ending, he or she should be able to predict that Mr. Mallard will step back into Mrs. Mallard’s life. As for the death of Mrs. Mallard, the heart disease got the best of her.