Symbolism in Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale, “Young Goodman Brown” is an image of the author as a symbolist. Hawthorne introduces deeper meaning into everyday objects and places such as a ribbon, a walking stick, and a path in the forest to develop the overall theme of the story, which is the questioning of one’s faith and the inevitable evil in mankind.
The pink ribbons, worn in the hair of Brown’s wife, Faith are introduced to the reader in the first paragraph when Faith is described “ thrust (ing) her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap” (309). Hawthorne is allowing the reader to envision childishness, innocence, and an almost playful nature. Hawthorne mentions the ribbons casually several times before the reader is aware of the significance they play in Brown’s journey into the night. As Brown is looking up to the sky at a dark cloud passing overhead, “something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the b...