“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. Entering 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 seductive things, which come at a cost. The price is their innocence. There are many parallels in these two stories, but ultimately Sylvia and Young Goodman Brown make different choices with similar outcomes when it comes to their innocence. Because these two stories are very similar, the way I read “A White Heron” was directly influenced by my previous reading of “Young Goodman Brown.” Within these two stories, the main characters possess tangible objects that symbolize their innocence - both are tempted to give them up at a cost - and finally the interpretation of these stories is influenced 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 wife was aptly called, threw her pretty little head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap as she called 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 anyway simply stayed at home as his Faith wanted, he would never walk with the Devil nor would he almost give up his innocence. An online source titled “Color Psychology” calls pink a representation of “[...]sweetness... in middle of paper... Oodman Brown's innocence is directly intertwined with that of his wife Faith, so when she is seen at the satanic ceremony, Young Goodman Brown no longer knows what to believe in. Faith's pink ribbons are a representation anymore profound with the childish innocence he carries within himself. Likewise, Sylvia's innocence is intertwined with that of the white heron. If the bird were to die, so would its innocence as it would step into the adult world. Since I read "Young Goodman Brown" first, 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” shaped my interpretation of how Sylvia and Brown go through the temptation to give up their innocence and must find their own way to maintain it..