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   timbrady Teacher
   College - Senior

   eNotes Editor

   This incident suggests to the reader that Brown is not the first member of his family to venture into the forest.  Brown states that he is the first member of his family ever to make this trip; this is the result of his naivete/uncomplicated view he has of himself and others.  As with most things in this story, Hawthorne keeps this "fact" ambiguous; like the entirety of his "journey," we don't know if this is true or not, but we know what it suggests --- that the people Brown idolizes are just people, that they have had their encounter with evil, and have not always been victorious.  Because he will only accept them on his terms, total innocence, he is doomed to a life of unhappiness.

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   Posted by timbrady on Tuesday March 3, 2009 at 1:55 PM