UH-Victoria

Parallelism

Exercise 4:

 

In the exercise that follows, underline the parallel structures and re-write sentences that contain incorrect parallelism.

Young Goodman Brown feels that he is strong enough to fight the temptation of evil because he is strong in his religious background. He has learned his religious lessons from visual saints, married a good woman named Faith, and believes that these elements make him elect as well. With these triumphs, he feels that he is safe and can resist evil. The devil in this story understands Brown’s weak definition of his faith and need to prove his saved status and is able to play these cards against him. For example, the devil uses Goody Cloyse, the woman who taught Brown his catechism, as an ally to challenge Brown’s religious convictions. The devil argues that if Brown were taught faith and love of God by an evil witch like Goody Cloyse, then his faith would be tainted with evil. The devil continues this shredding of Brown’s elite status by ripping away Brown’s Faith (both literal and figurative). The devil makes Brown believe that Faith, his wife, has fallen from the grace of heaven. Since his wife was a building block of his faith in God, it is understandable how quickly Brown can lose his faith when he sees her ribbons fall from the sky. This whole scene clarifies the theory that faith is not connected to a single person or community. His faulty reasoning has left him susceptible to the temptation of evil.

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