Man In Black Suit And Goodman Brown

Answer the questions below in complete, well developed responses. Questions for “The Man in the Black Suit”

1. How does the story’s frame work on the reader (Gary begins telling the story as an old man, flashes back to his youth, and ends as an old man again)? The framework was easy for me to follow along with, it was easy for me to understand that Gary was telling a story from his childhood as an old man.

2. What is the devil’s goal?
The devils goal is to use trickery and tell lies to Gary in order to convince him to not want to live. The devil tells him his mother is dead so that was he is convinced to give up which will make it easier for the devil to eat him.

3. What is symbolic in the story?
One thing stood out to me in the story, when Loretta was dying, the dog, Candy Bill licked away her tears. To me it symbolizes emotion and comfort for the one who was in need.

Questions for “Young Goodman Brown”

1. Look for the presence of surrealism in the story. What is the effect of the surrealism on the overall interpretation? To me, the presence of surrealism in this short story might be the secret meetings, the frightening sounds he hears from the woods, also Goodman honestly thinks he met the Devil. I think the effect of the surrealialism overall makes it a little bit confusing to recognize the difference of good and evil for me. I think not one person is absolutely good and none is absolutely evil. So it’s kind of difficult to grasp for example someone as pure and Godly as Faith can be corrupted to an evil person.

2. Discuss what you think of Faith. How long have they been married? What could she symbolize? Why does the narrator keep mentioning her pink ribbons?

From reading Young Goodman Brown; Faith seems to be a pure hearted woman in the beginning. As he name suggests she seems to be a faithful religious woman, just worried about her husband going away. If he is leaving her behind means maybe she takes care of the home and watches out after their home. Faith and Goodman Brown have been married for three months.

I think that Faith symbolized Goodman Brown’s faith in his spiritual believes, and his faith in other people. The pink ribbon I think is mentioned because it symbolizes how pure and innocent Faith is

3. Did Goodman Brown know that he was meeting the Devil? Why does he keep the meeting? This first question I was a little confused about, I never read where he actually knew he was meeting the devil, but in the store I read where it says “Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done tonight.” so I’m guessing he had an idea, but not for certain that he knew exactly that he was meeting the devil. He keeps the meeting because he made a promise

4. How is the forest meeting compared with a religious mass? Goodman Brown sees Goody Cloyse. He says about her: “a very pious and exemplary dame” so he cannot believe that she is in the forest. I think it shows that when you see some things it does weaken your faith as seen Goody sort of weakened Goodman’s faith.

5. Is Goodman Brown victorious against temptation? Should we follow his model? I this Goodman Brown was successful in resisting temptation against evil. In my opinion I would follow his model, you can always be curious to see what the unknown is like to satisfy your curiosity but don’t have to give in to the wrong.

6. Does the Devil force Brown into temptation? What is the goal of his temptation? The devil tried to force Goodman into temptation but he resists. I think the goal of the devils temptation to convert him to evil and to worship him

“Young Goodman Brown” and “The Man in the Black Suit” Comparison Questions

1. Which devil do you find most frightening and why?
The devil I found more frightening was the man in the Black suit because of the way he was described in the short story. His hands, his big mouth, his laugh and the fact that he was chasing down the little boy made him sound a lot scarier.

2. What are some of the major similarities between the stories? The major similarities I noticed was between the two devils. They wanted Gary and Brown to believe in them and what they were telling them. One other similarity I notice is that as humans we all have doubts and no matter what our beliefs are we are always tempted and we always want to see things for ourselves in order to believe them.

3. What are some of the important differences between the stories? How do the differences affect the portrait of evil shown (is one more effective/realistic/controversial and why?) I think the main difference of the two stories were the outcome. In the Yong Goodman Brown, his wife was corrupted by evil, but in the Man in the Black Suit the mother did not actually die as it was told by the devil. I don’t know if one is more effective than the other, but I feel the second story I read, Young Goodman Brown was more realistic. I feel is was more realistic and close to what humans do on every day bases. Humans are tempted everyday by doing things that are not socially acceptable so I felt this was a more realistic story. The way I think this would be a controversial thing is because people tend to lose faith in religion often and tend to join cults or other groups so of course that’s not very acceptable by society.