“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett share many similarities. One of these similarities includes the innocence of young Goodman Brown and Sylvia. As they enter the woods, they encounter a stranger who tries to steal their innocence. Although these strangers are different people, they offer young Goodman Brown and Sylvia attractive things, which come at a price. The price is their innocence. There are many parallels between these two stories, but ultimately Sylvia and Young Goodman Brown make different choices with similar results when it comes to their innocence. Because these two stories are very similar, the way I read "A White Heron" was directly affected by my previous reading of "Young Goodman Brown." In both of these stories, the main characters have tangible objects that symbolize their innocence – they are both tempted to give it up at some cost – and ultimately the interpretation of these stories is affected by intertextuality. For Young Goodman Brown, the tangible object that represents his innocence is his wife Faith. Faith, his wife, with her pink ribbons, embodies his purity and innocence: “And Faith, as the woman was aptly named, threw her pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap during whom she called to Goodman Brown” (Hawthorne 1). Here, Faith looks young, free and innocent as she lets the wind play with her pink ribbons. Faith doesn't want young Goodman Brown to leave her alone for the night, but he does it anyway. If he had simply stayed home as his Faith dictated, he would never have walked with the Devil or nearly given up his innocence. An online source titled "Color Psychology" calls pink a representation of "...gentleness...... middle of paper......oodman Brown's innocence is directly linked to his wife Faith, then, when we see her at the satanic ceremony, young Goodman Brown no longer knows what to believe. Faith's pink ribbons are a deeper representation of the feminine innocence she carries within her. Likewise, Sylvia's innocence is intertwined with the white heron. If the bird were to die, so would its innocence, for it would take a step into the world of adults. Since I first read “Young Goodman Brown,” my interpretations and connections I made between the endings of “A White Heron” might not have been there if I had read the stories in reverse order. Overall, the principle of intertextuality in "A White Heron" and "Young Goodman Brown" has shaped my interpretation of how Sylvia and Brown experience the temptation to abandon their innocence and must find their own way to retain it..