Young Goodman Brown is one of the best short fictions written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835. It tells us a story that Young Goodman Brown, a religious element, left his wife Faith and ventured deep into the forest to attend the assembly of evil in order to satisfy his curiosity. However, as an eyewitness of the congregation, both sinners and saints and including his faithful wife Faith had converted the devil, young Goodman Brown broke down and became a zombie.Owing to the closeness of short stories and the features of Hawthorne’s novels (symbolism and indirectness), only when we do deep analysis on it, the whole world of the story can be stretched out.And this paper analyses the inner meaning of some words and phrases of Young Goodman Brown from three aspects: Firstly, what’s the inner meaning of some words in this story. Secondly, why Hawthorne wrote this story, which including the satire at politics, society, racial discrimination and the introspection on Salem Witch Trials. Thirdly, how to see the good and evil.What’s the inner meaning of some words in Young Goodman Brown? Salem: ①H awthorne’s hometown.②It was where the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 happened.③It means a city of peace.④It is the latter part of Jerusalem, which shows the strong belief inChristianism of early colonistYoung: ①Goodman Brown was in a young age.②He just established his faith of God and just married with Faith.③He has the curiosity to learn about the world.Goodman:①Good man, good-hearted person.②It is a given name, which was given by families rather than born with.③Irony. Brown is not actually a good man for he cheated on his wife (myjourney is forth and back again), himself (felt himself justified inmaking more haste on his present evil purpose), the devil (theynever spoke theses matters) and also Goody Cloyse (cutthrough the woods until left her behind).Brown:①a common last name.②average person, everyman, every man.③brown is a color that generated by mixing black, red and white. Italso reflects that Brown is not totally a sinner nor a saint.④Brown is a last name passed down from generation to generationwhich cannot be changed and it also reflects that everyone has theoriginal sin.⑤Something tires somebody. It indicates the death of Brown.Faith: ①Strong religious belief in God②Loyal to love.③Purity of human nature.④Goodman’s wife and also a part of Goodman’s belief.Pink ribbons:①Faith wearing a pink ribbons shows that she was a young three-month newly bride②Pink is red and white,so it’s not pure, which reflects that Faithwas not faithful actually and she is an angel with sin.Sunrise/night: Nature cycle of day and night reflects the changes of human being .sunrise-sunset, day-night, good–evil,converts-apostates.Forest: ①The trees block out the sun, making people depressed and afraid.②Forest represent freedom and growth of youth.③The different views that the Puritanism and the transcendentalism towards nature.Fellow-traveler:①The devil who persuaded Brown to give up his belief.②It was Brown’s id according to Freud’s theory about id, ego andsuperego. Primitive desires and instincts of Brown wasmaterialized into this certain image.The staff which looks like a serpent:①devil in the shape of staff/serpent②It is a staff can display the miraculous signsand casing disaster just like Mose’s one..Why Hawthorne wrote this story?With the rapid development of science and technology and various kind of rights movement, some political and moral problems of capitalism and puri used to be hidden has come to light and it also forced us to re-examine the world and ourselves.Satire at political: Devil said that the selectmen, the majority of Great and General court, board of the province and the governors workfor his interests in the novel. It means that when politicianwork for their own interests rather than the public interests,they are the devils.Satire at social: sons murder their fathers for heritage, wives kill their husbandin order to marry lover, mothers buried the otherman’s child and the clergies molested their households.People do baldly everything as they want despite of laws andmoral to meet all their private demand.Satire at discrimination: It is apparently that Goodman Brown were greatly influenced by his father. Goodman’s father set fire to anIndian village in King Philips’s War and his son looked downupon the Indians (devilish Indians/Indian powwow). Britishsailed across the Atlantic and landed at New England in themiddle of 17century and finally settled down with the help withthe original inhabitants---the Indians. However, thedevelopment of colonists infringed the Indians’ interests andleaded to the battle for territory. The people whom thecolonists should show their gratitude to were massacred andthose returned evil for good hasn’t be punished.The introspection on Salem Witch Trials: Some details of the novel improves that it is also an introspection of Salem Witch Trials .The twowizards with broomstick in the novel, Goody Clyce and GoodyCorey, were named after the two poor hanged villagers SaraClyce and Giles Corey. The Salem Witch Trials began withthe unexplained disease of local minister’s children in 1692and ended in1693, during the year more than two hundredinnocent villagers were sent to jail and more than 20 of themwere sentenced to hang. The kind and diligent early Puritanswho immigrant to New England in order to escaping from thesuppression of heresy in England then also became the devilwho believing in the rigid Puritanism and killing the “heresy”with an appearance of angel because of the doublecharacters comes from the destruction of humannature.Hawthorne’s ancestor, William Hathorne, once usingcorporal punishment on heretic to forced her to give uporiginal belief (Goodman’ grandfather lashed a Quakerwoman)and John Hathorne was one of the judges whosentenced more than twenty innocent people to hang duringthe Salem Witch Trials!Hawthorne felt so shameful that hechanged h is last name “Hathorne” to “Hawthorne” to show hisdifference from his ancestors.How to see the good and evil?Hawthorne holds the belief that man born with sin and so do I.According to Bible, God made the first man Adam and then made the first woman Eve by one of Adam’s ribs. They were settled in the Garden of Eden and were warned that eating the apples from Tree Of Knowledge of Good and Evil is forbidden. Nevertheless, Satan changed into a serpent and persuaded Eve to eat the apple from the Forbidden Tree. As a result, Both Adam and Eve were drove out of Eden for they disobeyed the command of God and ate that apple.According to Young Goodman Brown, Goodman Brown and his wife Faith(who is also a part of Goodman as spiritual forces) were living in the city of peace (Salem). The devil with a staff which bore the likeness of a wriggle serpent (devil) lured Goodman Brown as well as Faith to the forest and join into the assembly of evil. The assembly destroyed their pure faith and neither of them can go to Heaven.Human were born with greed and ignorance, so they always do the same wrong things as their ancestors and maybe that’s what original sin is. As theoriginal sin cannot be avoided and life is not an either-or thing, we shouldfully understand what sin is andaccept the imperfect of ourselves and others, being kind rather than being right just like Faith and other villages of Salem. They are sinner in a sense, but they returned to the peaceful village from the evil forest and still knew how to love. From my personal perspective, the greatest evil is not doing evil things, but losing the ability of love and being loved, and the greatest kindness is keeping the power toward the light to fight against the evil of human nature. Goodman Brown thought that he should be the chosen one who would go to Heaven with Faith (faith) and refused admitting the existence of evil thought he knew them in fact, so the only thing he saw was the sins of other people after eyewitnessing the assembly of evil. Goodman Brown was the only one who didn’t “come back” from the forest for h e had left his mind to darkness and completely became a devil.。