Young Goodman Brown Response to questions

Question/Answer: .......

1. What do you think Hawthorne's purpose was for writing this story?
2. Hawthorne states that Brown's wife is "aptly named" Faith.  After reading the story, do you agree?  Does Faith's name fit her personality?  Does Brown have true faith in her?
3. What do you think the pink ribbons signify?
4. Was everything Brown witnessed real, a figment of his imagination, something conjured by evil, or a dream?  Support your answer with passages from the text.
5. Who do you think the old man really is?  What textual clues tell you this?
6. What does the staff represent?  Do you think the staff leads Brown onward or is the primary motivator Brown's own conscience/mind?
7. If Brown had not ventured into the forest, how would his life be different?  If he'd stayed home, would Brown still have Faith?  Would he still trust his wife and his fellow townspeople?

1.  I believe that Hawthorne's purpose for writing this story was to show the reader that there are many temptations and evil in this world. That you have to find the good in things but sometimes its hard to keep your 'faith'.
2. Yes I agree that faith is aptly named because throughout the whole story Young Goodman Brown's only 'faith' in anything and everything is through Faith. Brown has true faith in her but once she becomes like the others who loses all 'faith' 
3. I think the pink ribbons signify the loss of normality.
4. I feel like everything was just a figment of his imagination because yes it seemed real, but the evil knows how to creep into your mind and manipulate people. In the story it says how the next morning he saw everybody with a sense of evil and lived his life with fear so this can show that maybe the evil crept up to his head and mind and made him all delusional.
5. The old man is really the devil and all evil forces. Clues like the stick being like a snake and the constant urge in making young Goodman brown go to the ceremony. 
6. The staff represents the evil force. If you touch the staff or give it power then you have released the evil forces. I feel  like Browns own mind leads him onward because your own decisions are on you. If you mind is filled with evil then its still your mind making the actions
7.  Yes if Brown would have not ventured into the forest then he would still have Faith and still trust his fellow towns people. This is because if you don't expose yourself to things whether its physically, mentally, or spiritually, then there is no way it will come after you.