"Young Goodman Brown" TWIST Analysis

Activity Overview

Another great way to engage your students is through the creation of storyboards that asks your students to find Tone, Word Choice, Imagery, Style, and Theme. This activity is called a TWIST (an acronym for the above literary elements). In a TWIST analysis, students focus on a particular paragraph or few pages to look deeper at the author’s true meaning.

Using any paragraph of the story, students examine, depict, explain, and foreshadow what will happen while getting a good idea of the tone of the story.

TWIST Example for “Young Goodman Brown”

“While he still gazed upward into the deep arch of the firmament and had lifted his hands to pray, a cloud, though no wind was stirring, hurried across the zenith and hid the brightening stars. The blue sky was still visible, except directly overhead, where this black mass of cloud was sweeping swiftly northward. Aloft in the air, as if from the depths of the cloud, came a confused and doubtful sound of voices. Once the listener fancied that he could distinguish the accents of towns-people of his own, men and women, both pious and ungodly, many of whom he had met at the communion table, and had seen others rioting at the tavern. The next moment, so indistinct were the sounds, he doubted whether he had heard aught but the murmur of the old forest, whispering without a wind. Then came a stronger swell of those familiar tones, heard daily in the sunshine at Salem village, but never until now from a cloud of night There was one voice of a young woman, uttering lamentations, yet with an uncertain sorrow, and entreating for some favor, which, perhaps, it would grieve her to obtain; and all the unseen multitude, both saints and sinners, seemed to encourage her onward.”

T	TONE	Confused & Perplexed: Goodman Brown is confused and in disbelief. His faith is tested when he is tossed into the devil's circle and sees so many members of his community that he once believed were pious.
W	WORD CHOICE	Hid, cloud, black mass, confused, doubtful, indistinct, murmurs, whisper
I	IMAGERY	“...he... had lifted his hands to pray, a cloud, though no wind was stirring, hurried across the zenith and hid the brightening stars. The blue sky was still visible, except directly overhead, where this black mass of cloud was sweeping swiftly northward.”
S	STYLE	The narrator uses particular imagery and metaphors in his description to illustrate the evil around him. Although he searched for God, there were literal obstacles which kept him from goodness.
T	THEME	The narrator speaks of the darkness that surrounds him as a physical veil from goodness. The darkness, doubt, and fear he experiences are clearly the work of the devil. The major theme is the loss of innocence. As he looks around at community members and even at his own wife he realizes that his faith has been shattered.

Template and Class Instructions

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