The fountain of youth
Symbol analysis
The Fountain Of Youth features prominently in Dr. Heidegger's Experiment. It also fits directly into my critical question: "How do your experiences while a youth affect you as you grow older?" This question brings about the questions of purity and what's right. Purity is one of the main topics of Young Goodman Brown. Brown goes on a spiritual journey, where he sees the dark side of religion. At the end of night he is no longer a naive puritan. He loses faith and parallels Hawthorne's thinking on Human life. The idea of coming of age is also shown in My Kinsman, Major Molineux. In the short story Robin is just seventeen and learns of an Uncle whom he believes will help him through life. Robin's Uncle, Major Molineux, barely acknowledges Robin's presence and Robin realizes that life will not come to him but that he must make his own way in the world and be his own person. The Fountain of Youth represents purity and innocence. This brings with the theme of coming of age. Brown comes of age spiritually and losses his innocence in one night. Robin comes of age and realizes you need to take hold of your own life and not expect everything to be handed to you. The Fountain of Youth is directly used in Dr. Heidegger's Experiment. The Fountain is used by Dr. Heidegger in a social experiment. He gives water from the fountain to his friends who have no intention of being young again. When they drink the water they become youthful and energetic. The effects are only temporary though. The effects cause them to resent not being young and they quickly begin fighting each other. This concept of age is very different. They have no desire to be young but when they are young again then they turn old again they become upset almost instantly. This is more of a literal use of coming of age but it represents purity as they are all content until they are given a taste of a better life then they want nothing but that life. This is why the Fountain of Youth represents purity and innocence and directly correlates to coming of age.