Alan Bowen

Due: 10/04/2016

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Dr. Heiniger

     In the story of Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne there are many points of the question of faith. In the story there is actually two different faiths he references, one being his wife and two being his actual faith of God. Faith is the symbol for faith.

     In the story Faith, his wife, asks him to stay and do the errand during the day but he says no and that it must be done before sunrise. As he goes he turns back and thinks to himself, “What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand! She talks of dreams, too. Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done tonight. But no, no; 't would kill her to think it. Well, she's a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven." This shows him going back on his faith and as he is doing is he knows it. It shows him doing what almost all people do with their faith. It's like he says oh this one time and then I will be perfect. Him having that mentality really shows him referring to his faith. Another part that shows him signifying he is talking about his faith is him talking about following her to heaven. He obviously is not going to follow her to heaven but you can cling to your faith and that is what will get you there.

     An interesting line from the story is "Faith kept me back a while,". In this sentence he really is referring to both. In the sense of his wife holding him back it was because of her worrying and asking him to stay but his faith held him back. He is a Goodman which they have a name for themselves as good christian men. He even tells the devil, “We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs” He knows he is doing wrong by this and it's like his body is being drawn to do the ways of the devil but his mind his fighting it trying to pull him back to where he belongs. He really takes pride in his family being puritans and you really see that he brought his religion to his marriage.

     You can see throughout the whole story he is fighting back. Like when Goody Cloyse leaves his mind is made up that he is not taking another step. He said, “What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven: is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith and go after her?" This has both meanings. He obviously doesn’t want to quit on his wife for an old woman but at the same time he is not going to throw away his faith just because someone he looked up to threw away theirs. Afterwards he just sits there and says he did a could job. He thinks of what is like to be in his wife's arms and to be back on track with his faith.  Even when all three of his mentors give in he stands tall against the devil as long as “heaven above and Faith below”. Only when he hears the screams and the pink ribbon lands in his hand is when he turns toward the devil. He cries out, “My Faith is gone!" and that is when his actual faith leaves him. His wife is still there with him but his faith for God leaves him and he goes down the devil's path.

     Faith does enter his heart again as he is at the meeting. He wonders to himself “where is Faith?" “as hope came into his heart’ that question with the hope entering his heart is his faith entering back into him. He is questioning the location of his wife here but it is more than that. It shows he is believing again. He still cares. He still has the hope and the fire of the spirit inside of him. It didn’t disappear even though he followed the devil’s path. He still is searching for that faith of the lord. He realized he needed faith to continue on with his life. Without Faith he had no wife and without faith in God he had no principles to base his marriage and life off of. He has nothing without faith and he realizes he needs faith to live.

     You could even believe that Faith his wife doesn’t exist. Looking at it the wife part is an allegory for the actual meaning of faith. You could look back at many points during the story where he says Faith but truly it seems like he is talking about his faith. The wife part could be just being used to show a figure or a person as the one holding him back. Women are looked at as usually being the spiritual ones in society and the man has trouble upholding his Godly duties so maybe his wife Faith could just be the representation as his faith but in reality it is his mind fighting him because he knows what he is doing is wrong.

     Goodman Brown just like us all deal with our faith. Some turn away from it from time to time but God is always fighting for us to look towards him. Goodman Brown and how he deals with faith is extremely relatable to the average person. Not many of us have been to a devil meeting but at the same time we all fight with ourselves and our faith of God. We even handle things the same way. Like when he says after tonight I will change my ways and never do it again. We have all said that sometime in our life about something. I also believe that we have all thought of our parents or some role model to be perfect but then once you got older and realized what they have done, we were in ah. He faced the same thing through the story from hearing what his granddad and dad did and the actually seeing all three of his mentors walk the path of the devil. He never would have thought he would see the pastor there taking the devils communion just like we have seen our pastors in unexpected places. We all face trials of faith. The devil is always trying to get us to turn our back from God and have us do what we want. Goodman Brown did what we all do and that’s why we can relate with his struggle of faith so easy even though this is a crazy case.

     Faith in Young Goodman Brown is two different things. One is his wife and two is the allegory of his wife. The allegory is actually his own faith that he struggles with. Throughout the story there are many points where they are talking about Faith on the outside but actually talking about Goodman Brown’s faith.

Edited by Katelyn Dunford

Name (paper): __Alan Bowen___Name (reviewer): _Katelyn Dunford_____ , Carah Dalton      

American Literature I Final Paper Rubric