Puritan Faith In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

“Young Goodman Brown” is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The literary work entails a young man’s journey into the woods one night and stumbles upon a variety of people that will change his life forever, but not for the better. The overall tone for the passage is more skeptical in the beginning as Brown tries to figure out his stand on the subject of his puritan faith, however, the it shifts towards a more traffic tenor at the end as he lives with the consequences of his choices from the night in the woods when he decided to walk along side with the weary old traveler. Young Brown proclaims during his journey, “‘Faith! Faith!’ as if bewildered wretches were seeking her, all through the wilderness… ‘My Faith is gone!’ cried he,

It embarks on a woman as she questions her view on life and her overall character, wondering whether or not she deserves a spot in heaven. O’Connor sets a malicious tone for the first half of the story, later bring a more optimistic manner into play. As Mrs. Turpin continued to rant so forth and so forth about white trash, blacks, and ugly people taking up space in the world, she continues to notice the daughter of one of the doctor’s office employees and the glare that seems to be inhabiting the atmosphere of the room. In tremor, Mary Grace springs towards attacking Mrs. Turpin, screaming, “Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog” (O’Connor 272). She began to question, why her? Was she really a wart hog from hell? Slowly, but surely, the gears began to turn. The waiting room symbolized purgatory, a place where souls go to be purified previous to entering into heaven. Mary Grace, playing a key role in purgatory, symbolized the saving grace, opening Mrs. Turpin’s eyes to the way she had been living her entire life. She goes one to retell a vision she had seen after the attack, claiming, “They were marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable as they had been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. They alone were the key” (O’Connor 278). Envisioning blacks, white, rich, and poor walking hand in hand, no discrimination or social ranking present, as the march towards the golden gate. As told by the biblical book, “Revelations”, judgement day for Mrs. Turpin will eventually come, but was she prepared. The temptation to change her way of life can be predicted to be so strong that her faith and outlook on love grew as well. In the end, it does not matter what possessions she owned or what others thought of her, all that would matter would be her faith as it continued to grow strong and stronger with each passing day,