Fiction analysis essay

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: DECAY William Godwin once said, “The proper method for hastening the decay of erroris by teaching every man to think for himself” (Weber, 13). The society through acceptance or denial has some extent of decay, which could be natural or even spiritual. The saying tends to rhyme completely with the personal opinion regarding the same, as the story of ‘Arose for Emily’, by William Faulkner, as well as ‘Young Goodman Brown’, by Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays this comprehensively’. The two stories explore the theme of decay through symbolism, characterization and point of view (POV). The natural decay has been portrayed evidently in the story of “A rose for Emily” through various description of her early age and process of deterioration. Symbolism is very evident as she is compared to a monument that is usually imagined as ancient (Faulkner, 6). In addition, a monument describes a structure that was used by ancient people and no longer had much meaning in the sight of the contemporary world and people. However much it may be denied, this story shows that decay is subject to life and every tangible object like the houses, the town as well as human beings. The lively town that once existed in the days of her younger age as well as the beauty of her family’s house lost its splendor and glory as the years progressed. On the other hand, the story of “young Goodman brown” elaborates further on the spiritual and societal. After Goodman decides to take the evil trip, the fellow traveler convinces him that the people he thought are good in both morals and spiritual matters are in the first line in doing evil. Thus, Goodman loses trust for good things because he realizes that his role models practice what is good in his presence and evil while in the darkness (Hawthorne, 24). Symbolism is clearly shown where Goodman’s wife is called Faith, to represent his faith in God. Goodman actually says that when he returns from his trip, he will cling to Faith’s skirt to heaven, and at the point where he tells the fellow traveler that Faith kept him back, explaining the reason for his delay to an evil assignment. Similarly, the black staff that the fellow traveler held represented a snake, which spiritually means presence of evil. Both authors have used various characters to bring out the theme of decay. The story of “A rose for Emily” contains many fictional characters to contribute to the development of the story. The parents of Emily are featured to show the extent in which Emily has aged. There is a combination of characters that have been put in line with Emily...