Drugs Case

In his deep and particularly dark short story, Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne explores a very real but uncomfortably thought of side of the human spirit. Set in the real town of Salem, Massachusetts, where the historic Salem witch trials took place, this story is a glimpse into the depths of the spiritual battle being waged for the hearts and minds of mankind. While at first glance the story is about a man's surreal late-night walk in the forest and his experience of a dark sort of witch meeting, the story uses these illustrations to symbolically portray man's dangerous attraction to evil, a theme seen in Goodman Brown and his wife, other supporting characters in the story, and the forest. Goodman Brown could represent anyone. He is basically the everyman. The symbolism starts to build at the very beginning of the story. Goodman Brown is first described as young and newly married. His wife's name is Faith, a detail that bears significance to the theme. Within the context of the story, we could symbolically view Goodman Brown as a believer, a follower of God, albeit a young one. His connection to "Faith" is also young and still being established. He does not yet completely cling to faith, which can be seen from his thoughts about leaving on this "journey", away from his wife Faith for the evening: "Poor little Faith!" thought he, for his heart smote him. "What a wretch am I, to leave her on such an errand!...Well; she's a blessed angel on earth and after this one night I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven." (86) (Hawthorne)

To begin with much like a weakened believer, Goodman Brown has intentions to come back and take care of his Faith, but only after he gets the darker things out of the way, because his faith (or Faith) has not yet been integrated into his life enough to be involved in this decision-making. Upon having met up with his walking companion and being chided for lateness, Goodman Brown makes the comment, "Faith kept me back awhile", a statement that is almost ominous within the symbolic context. Symbolically speaking, he is going into the dark forest while trying to leave his shield behind. The confusion and doubt in Goodman Brown's mind continues as he goes deeper into the forest, much in the same way that the more someone strays from his closeness to God, the more he becomes vulnerable to being drawn into spiritual danger and destruction. Goodman Brown is enticed, and even though he hesitates and momentarily pulls back and later on even calls out for his "Faith", he lets himself be drawn further into the forest, further from safety. Believers and followers of Christ are prime targets for being spiritually attacked and enticed to draw closer to other things in this world, instead of yielding all areas of their life to God. The character of Faith in this story is the picture of innocence: the fact that she is a sweet young bride with pink ribbons (suggesting the innocence of a young child) suggests a parallel to the Christian life: an innocent, childlike faith in God. This is just what Satan would have a Christian be drawn away from, and just what Goodman Brown is traveling farther from in the story. In fact, he makes a frightening suggestion during his panic in the forest: "My Faith is gone!" cried he, after one stupefied moment. "There is no good on earth, and sin is but a name. Come, devil! For to thee is this world given." (91) And maddened with despair, so that he laughed loud and long, did Goodman Brown grasp his staff and set forth again at such a rate that he seemed to fly along the forest path rather than to walk or run.

Furthermore, this happens just after he takes hold of a pink ribbon that has just fluttered down out of the sky. This could symbolize the perceived abandonment of one's faith, or even the intentional abandonment of it. Either way, it is a dangerous breaking point, which we can see from Goodman Brown's reaction, a reaction of giddy