Young Goodman Brown/The Birthmark

Young Goodman Brown is the short story about a man who ultimately loses his faith and faces temptation along the way. In the beginning, he leaves his wife named Faith who is young and very trusting of Goodman, to go on an adventure. Goodman initially ignores Faith when she tells him of all the disturbing dreams he has, but later regrets it when he sees his wife participating in the evil ceremony. This short story teaches the lessen that by giving into to temptation sometimes you really don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone. In the end, Goodman loses his Faith, in more ways than one. This story also brings up the issue of trust because in the end, after experiencing the evil ceremony, Goodman no longer trusts anyone. I feel that no one should be gullible and just trust in everybody or everything you hear, but at the same time everyone should have at least a few select people that they can trust with anything in order to be a happy and stable human being.

 

The Birthmark is a short story about a scientist that tries to change a feature about his wife into something he thinks to be “ideal”. Aylmer’s wife Georgiana is this beautiful kind hearted woman who really only has one noticeable flaw which is her birthmark on the left side of her face. She is fine with the birthmark as it is but her husband manages to convince her to get rid of the birthmark and he gives her a potion that ultimately ends up killing her in the end.  Unfortunately this is even a problem in today’s society, more so with women.  So many people have one perception of what they believe is considered the “ideal” look when in reality they forget to realize that everyone is uniquely and wonderfully made. Everyone is not meant to be a size 2 or be a cover model, but you have to learn to embrace your imperfections and except the fact you are amazing just the way you are. There is no way to please everyone, if your main goal in life is to do so you will be one miserable person and can end up killing yourself in a physical and/or mental sense. Bruno Mar's song "Just the Way You Are" is a great example of appreciating yourself for who you are. The lyrics say it all.

Rip Van Winkle/Self-Reliance

The story of Rip Van Winkle is a tale about a man from a small Dutch village who basically spends more time tending to other people’s business than his own. He does this and neglects his own farm and family, in particular his nagging wife Dame Van Winkle. Who wouldn’t want to get away from that right? Rip goes off and somehow falls asleep for 20 years and sleeps through the American Revolution. When he goes back to his village nobody recognizes him and believes he’s a spy. He tells his story to the village and they all just think he’s crazy. His daughter comes out of the crowd and explains everything. Rip then finds out that his wife Dame passed away from popping a blood vessel. He then goes on to live with his daughter and her family. The moral of this story I believe teaches you to not take what you have for granted and appreciate it. Rip’s adventure he has can symbolize a fantasy and escape through imagination.

In the essay Self-Reliance, Emerson really goes on to say that relying on yourself and your own thoughts and ideas is the ideal thing to do. He claims that having your own mind and thoughts can classify you as being a genius. Emerson also uses famous ideal figures such as Christ to basically say that history’s greatest thinkers were outcasts for their first ideas.Me being a Disney fanatic I thought of “Hakuna Matata” from the Lion King. I felt that ultimately Emerson doesn’t want us to have any worries about what other people think of our ideas and to just be confident with what you feel.