Journey In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, the reader is essentially taking a journey with Goodman Brown, who has left his faith behind and has begun a journey embarking on sin, which is where his life will ultimately be altered. The young man in the story has a wife named Faith, takes a rather peculiar journey at the darkest time of the night, and how in that journey loses his faith in all things. Goodman Browns journey is one to be discussed and one to be analyzed deeply, because his journey is unlike any other individual’s life altering experiences.
Uniquely, Faith possesses a deeper meaning to this story. Faith is what has allowed Goodman Brown to stay away from sinful acts. Hawthorne states, “Faith kept me back a while”. This quote is fully describing how he has left part of his faith at home and has taken this journey through

the woods in search of sin and wrong doings. Faith, being his wife was attempting to hold him back and pleads with him to not embark on this sinful journey; it seems as if Brown has been summoned to the woods and feels the need to understand exactly what that summons means to his life. Faith is what essentially keeps sin away and in him leaving faith behind shows that this journey wasn’t an ideal one. Hawthorne uses one’s name to bring about a significant and important part of Browns journey.
Then the ever-changing journey shifts to the woods where it is pitch black at the midnight hour. One can then interpret nothing good can happen when you’re faithless and on a journey at the darkest time of the night. The author states, “What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!” (Hawthorne). In the pitch of darkness one could never know what is lurking in front of them or behind and that is the case in Goodman Browns journey. Brown, is ultimately left blind to everything and cannot notice if danger is staring him right in the eye. With this quote it shows how darkness is dangerous, which is why Faith was so against him heading out at midnight. In this kind of story darkness means something more than just darkness. Darkness means sin and wrong doings, and Brown for some reason felt the need to embark on a journey at night knowing the dangers. Light represents faith and a heavenly feel whereas darkness shows nothing but the devil and Hell. Being faithless and in the darkness of the night represents, that he has ultimately left the path of righteousness and has traded that for sin.
Ultimately, Goodman Brown experiences a great deal of sin throughout his journey in the woods.

Brown, ends his peculiar journey but not before discovering the sin that lives within everyone. The author says, “But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting” (Hawthorne). The journey ends for Brown, but whether that journey was a dream or reality, one can only interpret and speculate seeing as how this journey became believable. Brown has now reunited with his wife Faith, but Faith is now greeting a totally different man. Goodman Brown saw a lot of sinful activities in the woods and it has brainwashed his mind to believing that all people are not to be trusted and that sin does exist in the heart of everyone. He cannot wrap his head around how one can be so full of faith but at the same time full of sin. As his life went on he was never able to fully gain his faith back and that just shows the power of experience and the power of faith. On his faithless journey he discovers something that he felt was wrong and unjust, which ultimately turned him off to the sight of his wife

Faith.
Undoubtedly, Goodman Brown is unfortunately lost after his experience in the woods. He isn’t the same throughout the remainder of his life. In the real world, individuals go through life altering experiences that leave them broken and lost. Hawthorne states, “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not desperate man did he become from the night of the fearful dream” (Hawthorne). Experience has a lot to do with the life individuals choose to live. The experience that Goodman Brown faces, leaves him confused and not being able to trust. It is never easy to have a life changing experience, specifically one that alters the way one views the world. This concept is extremely relevant to the society represented today. Goodman Brown, didn’t believe sin was in all of our hearts and didn’t believe we were all capable of wrong doing.
In conclusion, having to write a story where a man is ultimately left broken and confused isn’t easy. He was a faithful man before heading out to the woods, but the experiences he faced while in the woods left him completely faithless. Goodman Brown, didn’t believe that if you were a god fearing or living a faith based life that you didn’t have sin in your heart. In him finding that out left him confused and ultimately not being able to trust. Individuals who are so strongly religious often feel that sin isn’t in anyone who is a person of faith, but truth is no one is a perfect individual and we all are capable of committing mistakes. I believe it is a time for religious people to open their eyes and see that perfection is never going to be attained.