My Book Cover

Synopsis of Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Young Goodman Brown, the narrator of this story, leaves his wife Faith at home and enters the depths of the forest late at night. While in the woods, he meets the devil, and, going against his Puritan ways, the narrator follows the devil to a witch gathering. When Brown arrives at the gathering, he learns that everyone he ever considered holy is actually in cahoots with the devil, sinners. Of these people is his wife Faith, who figuratively exemplifies Brown’s religious faith. Hawthorne’s story is an allegory for the assignment of sin that Puritans imposed on others, such as slaughtering women who opposed Puritan beliefs during the Salem witch trials, while they simultaneously acted in immoral and arguably evil ways. Pointing out their hypocrisy, Hawthorne exemplifies Puritans’ hatred of things, places, and people who don’t align with their beliefs while dually showing that the actions/beliefs Puritans, the ‘in-group,’ stand against, they still do/practice.

Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a New England native, lived from July 1804 to May 1864. He is a noted American novelist whose writing embraces ideas of romance and realism. His most notable story, The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, gave him the rightful title of “one of America’s most important writers” (Gollin 1145). Through his collection of works, Hawthorne explores what it means to be an American in a cultural context while also taking an in-depth look at what the American experience was like during his lifetime. Hawthorne mistrusted “institutionalized authority, including organized religion” (Gollin 1146), which is reflected in his works. Always searching for prosperity and inspiration, Hawthorne engrossed himself in various communities. In 1839, he was appointed Measurer in the Boston Custom House; in April 1841, he briefly became a member of Brook Farm, a utopian commune; and from 1857 to 1859, he immersed himself with art and artists in Rome and Florence. Even after his death, Hawthorne’s works, which were commentary on American society during his lifetime, still hold value when discussing today’s American culture.

Promotional Blurb #1

“As an exemplar of Puritanism society, I find Young Goodman Brown to be a wonderful cautionary tale! During my three-month captivity by Algonquian Indians, Pagans, I experienced hath wilderness persuades a good Puritan to become uncivilized. I was forced to steal sinewy, boiled horse feet from an English child just to survive, and the barbarous savages who captured me had no sense of agriculture or industrialization. It was only by God’s glory that I survived that wretched period. When Goodman Brown wanders from the safety of his Puritan town and into the uncivilized wilderness, he is confronted with numerous evils- just as I was. I penned my captivity narrative, to exemplify the wonderfull goodness of God, as David did, and as Hawthorne does now. This narrative shewed hath wilderness draws you to evil, that it is evil in of itself. Hawthorne makes the point that we must act as civilized Americans, cultivate societies with industry and renounce the heathens lurking on this continent’s uncivilized lands.” – Mary Rowlandson

Promotional Blurb #2

“Hawthorne’s narrative is almost as good as my biography, written by Diane Nguyen. Although I found his language to be super sucky–let’s be honest, crap written before 2010 all sounds Shakespearian–the story was actually not bad. Faith, the dude’s wife, is supposed to represent his religious faith or something like that, but I honestly just think she sounds like a bitch. I mean, who doesn’t tell their husband that they’re a witch?!? She better be hot if she’s gonna do something like that. Also, there’s like this cool devil guy, he’s a bad dude, but he’s definitely got the cool person vibe- maybe he could guest star on my newest TV show. The main character is just stupid, he literally wanders into the woods late at night, like has he not watched a single horror movie?? Personally, I prefer comedy, but Hawthorne does NOT seem like he has a sense of humor. Why so serious Hawthorne? Also, what’s with all this underlying religion crap? We get it, the Puritans were super hypocritical…move on! Anyways, I could have totally written this story better, but like it’s pretty alright- go read it or something. Alright, gotta go get drunk and commit some sort of crime to get on the front cover of Sunday’s tabloids; have to save my dying career somehow. At least my wife isn’t secretly a devil worshiper thoughhhh. Wait, this was supposed to promote the story…..uhhhh…totally read this it’s got like a super deep allagorical meaning… is that how you spell allagorical…??” – Bojack Horseman

Designer’s Statement

When designing the book jacket for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, Young Goodman Brown, I wanted to focus on the themes of religious hypocrisy and being civilized vs. uncivilized. I chose the black background because the story takes place at night, allowing me to add details to the sky and to play into themes of darkness and evil, which Hawthorne also explores in this narrative. I chose to include a full moon with a witch in the top right corner to represent Faith, Brown’s wife, during the story’s final scenes when he realizes she is secretly in cahoots with the devil. Faith, who represents Brown’s religious faith, is illuminated by a cross with lightning bolts. As the story is an allegory for the hypocrisy of Puritanism, I wanted to include the cross, a religious symbol, illuminating her, the secret witch. I also included Faith’s pink hair ribbon draped across the cross. Her hair ribbon, introduced to readers at the beginning of the story, seemingly represents Faith’s innocence; a sweet, young woman with a pink ribbon would be the last character expected to act immorally. As such, when Brown sees her pink ribbon fall to the ground as she flies above him on her broom, it represents their collective loss of innocence and, more specifically, belief in the innocence of those who practice Puritanism. Thus, by draping the ribbon over the cross, I show the assumed innocence that comes with being religious. However, in the same respect, the image illuminates the secret evil within, or the witch. 

The bottom half of the book jacket has imagery of a small town with a prominent church and a dark forest with footsteps leading inwards. The two scenes are set on opposite sides of the cover, representing the separation between civilization and wilderness. In this story, Hawthorne explores the Puritan idea that those who are not religious or industrial are uncivilized and thus evil; Native Americans, for example, were considered uncivilized and evil by the Puritans. As such, setting the church up as the prominent part of the town and juxtaposing it with the forest was my attempt to show this theme of ‘us’ vs. ‘others’ explored by the story. The church is red, as color theory has designated red to represent evil, and in this story, the religious characters are all devil worshipers. Both sides, the town and forest, represent two very different types of human impact on the environment. On the left side, the city has no trees; instead, the land has been used for building and the church, promoting religion and industry. On the other side, the forest has various trees and just a few footprints on the ground. This shows that there is still human interaction and impact while maintaining and respecting the area’s natural beauty. As Puritans felt that Native Americans were uncivilized and lesser because they did not create a similar environmental impact, I wanted to juxtapose the two cultures, specifically their environmental impacts and intentions. Altogether, my book cover exemplifies the literal and figurative aspects of Hawthorne’s narrative using a combination of color theory, imagery, and size/perspective work to make an artistic claim about Puritanism. 

When choosing which author would write promotional blurb number one, I wanted to find someone whose works revolved around Puritanism and ideas of being civilized vs. uncivilized. As such, I chose Mary Rowlandson, author of a captivity narrative. Rowlandson, unlike Hawthorne, felt Puritanism was an essential part of one’s life and a necessary part of civilization. She acted as an exemplar for her society, preaching about how God is the only way to combat uncivilized, and thus evil, cultures. Using religion as a measure of civility, Rowlandson used her position to claim that Puritans were superior to all other cultures/religions because of moral purity. As Young Goodman Brown directly opposes Rowlandson’s views, I took this opportunity to have a little fun with the project. I made Rowlandson’s blurb come off as though she didn’t fully grasp the underlying allegory that Hawthorne writes about and instead saw his work as a positive statement about how religion protects people from evil. For example, in her blurb, I have Rowlandson call the narrative a ‘cautionary tale’ about how wilderness can turn people uncivilized. In reality, this is a story depicting the way that people who practice Puritanism are often more uncivilized than those they consider uncivilized. However, due to religious blinders, I feel Rowlandson would have missed this point, so I made sure it went over her head when writing the blurb. Additionally, I made Rowlandson talk about herself frequently throughout the blurb, playing into the idea that she is an exemplar and feels her opinion is crucial for others. In fact, she may comment more about her own story than Hawthorne’s. Although this is not how a promotional blurb is normally written, I feel that making Rowlandson come off as self-centered reflects the self-righteous attitude she takes in her own writing. To make my blurb sound as accurate as possible, I replaced ‘has’ with ‘hath’ and ‘showed’ with ‘shewed;’ wonderful has also been spelled ‘wonderfull’ as Rowlandson spelled it in her narrative. I also made sure to make religious-based comments, such as the comment about David, similarly to how she does in her writing. The combination of all of these elements formed a promotional blurb that shows how a Puritan may have interpreted Hawthorne’s story while also acting as an example of the social negatives that come with religion, as Hawthorne’s narrative intends to point out.

The second promotional blurb, ‘written’ by the TV character Bojack Horseman, was the hardest for me to write of the two blurbs. I chose Horseman because I felt I knew his character well enough to stay true to his mannerisms while still making an analytical argument. The show Horseman stars in, Bokack Horseman, balances comedy with witty and sardonic critiques of life. Because of this, choosing Horseman as my second promoter allowed me to have some creative freedom while also making an argument that is true to Horseman’s character. I felt that Hawthorne, who was also somewhat sardonic in his writing, would pair nicely with Horseman. Although a reader may initially feel put off by Horseman’s blurb due to his crassness and language, there is a deeper meaning that should not be overlooked. Similarly to Rowlandson, I wanted to make Horseman look self-centered, which is why so much of the blurb is him talking about himself. However, Horseman also comments on the hypocrisy of Puritanism and the allegory of religious faith and Brown’s wife, Faith. Going further, Horseman discusses Hawthorne’s personal obsession with religion and the impact it has on the narrative, telling Hawthorne to ‘move on.’ Although this may seem like a crass comment on the surface, its intention is to show how deeply ingrained the commentary about religion is into this story and how the author’s personal feelings towards Puritanism are strongly reflected in his narrative. Horseman also gives readers a clue as to the allegorical meaning of the text, going as far as introducing Faith as evidence of that allegory. Unlike Rowlandson’s review, Horseman is able to see the deeper religious commentary within the narrative and critique how that affects a reader’s perspective of the story. Although on the surface, Horseman’s commentary seems shallow and unimportant, he is actually making a crucial point about the role religion and allegory play in Young Goodman Brown, as well as how Hawthorne’s personal perspective influenced this narrative. By using crass and unassuming language, the blurb stays true to Horseman’s mannerisms while also honoring his characteristic of subtly delivering insightful life views. 

Project Reflection

Overall, this project encompasses everything that I have learned about being a reader, writer, and user of WordPress from this class. Knowing how social and historical context influences literature is essential in understanding an author’s intentions. However, before this class, it was rare that I looked at such contexts before reading a story. I would assume that the story’s intention, which I only found through close analysis, was something that could be fully understood without additional context. This left me with a fragmented understanding of why an author wrote their story, speech, narrative, poem, etc. In high school specifically, I would be given a text to read and interpret, but I was never told about the author or the historical events surrounding the publication of the narrative. However, in this course, we focused primarily on how those outside contexts alter the meaning of a story. For example, Hawthorne’s narrative, Young Goodman Brown, would not make nearly as much sense if I hadn’t learned about Hawthorne’s religious opposing beliefs and the additional social interpretation of Puritanism during the time this story was written. Without knowing that Puritans were often considered self-righteous and hypocritical by Hawthorne and others, I would have never been able to make that connection in the text. Instead, I may have assumed it was a story about the hypocrisy of religion in general and would not have known why witches or Native Americans were used as examples in the story. However, with the cultural context, I understand that both witches and Native Americans were groups attacked by the Puritans under the guise of godliness when, in reality, it was the Puritans acting immorally. As a reader, I now understand all layers of the works I read, not just the most prominent interpretations. The various perspectives we looked at have helped me understand these larger cultural issues, which are still prominent today. For example, reading Hawthorne’s story will give readers an entirely different perspective on religion than if they read Rowlandson’s captivity narrative. Going further, Rowlandson’s narrative provides women with a certain level of autonomy not present in Hawthorne’s writing. These subtle details would not have been important to me if I had not taken this class, but now that I am aware of them, it is evident that they play essential roles in the literature I have read. 

Undertaking this assignment allowed me to show off the various contexts that I have learned to be more aware of while reading; I also explored how the author’s personal beliefs and upbringing affect the message they are trying to portray. The book cover, specifically, allowed me to show off my deeper understanding of Young Goodman Brown’s historical context. Juxtaposing Native American and American cultures and their literal and figurative roles in the story was just one part of the project that showed this skill. 

Although this book jacket format was unconventional, I could make a better argument about the text than I would have been able to do through only writing. I could add subtle details with multiple meanings so that each element builds off the other. In an essay, I would have had a few individually constructed points to prove a central thesis. However, each point I make in this project works with the others to create a more cohesive and persuasive argument. I could show the whole picture through small details instead of trying to use subtle details to create a larger idea/picture. Using my ePortfolio as a home for this project has allowed me to practice displaying and publishing my work and opinions for others to see. An essay would not have built my portfolio or demonstrated a deep understanding of the content the same way this project does. This book jacket shows that I understand the author’s story and its context and can add to and build off of it. Being able to create my product, while still staying true to the themes and ideas of another text, demonstrates my deep understanding of that story. Explaining it with my own words and imagery is far more impressive than writing about discussion points from class and quoting work that has already been written and analyzed. As such, this book jacket format is more intensive and brings forth a deeper understanding of the content than an essay would. Learning how to build that information into a page on my portfolio has provided me with skills to showcase my work for others to see in a logical and coherent way. 

Bibliography

Bob-Waksberg, Raphael, creator. Bojack Horseman. Tornante Television Boxer vs. Raptor ShadowMachine, 2014.

Canva Free, www.canva.com/free/.

Gollin, Rita, “Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864” The Concise Health Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1: Beginnings to 1865, 2nd Edition, edited by Paul Lauter, et al., Wadsworth Publishing, 2013, pp.1145-1148.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, “Young Goodman Brown.” The Concise Health Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1: Beginnings to 1865, 2nd Edition, edited by Paul Lauter, et al., Wadsworth Publishing, 2013, pp.1163-1173.

Rowlandson, Mary, “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.” The Concise Health Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1: Beginnings to 1865, 2nd Edition, edited by Paul Lauter, et al., Wadsworth Publishing, 2013, pp. 253-270.