Young Goodman Brown portrays a common disaster a young Christian experiences when he/she allows him/her self to stray from the familiar paths prescribed by the Bible and other mature Christians. The journey of Goodman Brown parallels many who have attempted to walk the Christian path and somehow strayed into dangerous territory. The story is about a young man named Goodman Brown who goes on an errand of evil intent taken place in the darkness of a forest. Upon arriving, brown encounters another traveler who is revealed to be the devil. The devil employs cunning tactics that compel the young Christian to abandon his faith and returns to live out the rest of his life without hope and in despair. …show more content…
Given there are many people who grow up in the church and understand the church doctrine; it is common for individuals who decide later in life that the Christian way is not the way for them. It should also be noted that at the end of the story, Brown continues to attend church and say prayers with his family but despises Christianity in his heart. Although this assumption becomes difficult when explaining how he rejects Christianity yet is still married to his wife Faith. Taking the assumption that Brown is one who has embraced Christianity as his own yet still young in the Christian faith, he is not yet grounded in the full reality of the trials of Christianity.
Is there an expectation of what Christianity must look like? It seems to Brown, there is a sense of Christians being either purely good or purely evil. His initial understanding of his wife, Faith, is that she is all that is pure and innocent, represented by the pink ribbon that is fluttering in her hair. When brown begins with what he thinks faith should look like and it turns out not to look the way he expects, there are three ways he could have reacted; either he could deny the alterations to his faith and remain ignorant, his faith must change, or in his case he would lose it