Understanding the cultural context of a story can often help our understanding of some aspect of the story itself. The social, political, and economic currents surrounding a writer can, and usually do, affect the writer’s literary creation. Sometimes this influence is direct, as evidenced by Tim O’Brien’s descriptions of the Vietnam War in “How to Tell a True War Story.” Sometimes it less defined, as is the case for “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kakfa. Sometimes it seems so slight that the cultural context of a work may be important only because it seems reasonable to assume that all writers are to some degree products of their time. However, we can only appreciate if and how a story is responding to society when we explore the story’s cultural context.

Document Collections for “Young Goodman Brown”

We have collected the following documents to help you to broaden and deepen your understanding of this story. There are interactive questions at the end of each piece. Responses to the questions can be added to your notebook—this will be collated so that you can print or e-mail your work when you are finished.

>Salem Witch Trials

>Puritan New England