They chose to let Paul know the truth about his eyesight. This was an important choice because it was a choice to tell Paul the truth. It was to reverse one the first choices they have made together to hide information from Paul for his own good. By not initially telling Paul what happened to his eyes, it made Paul grow up hating himself. Boor shows this when he writes, “So you figured it would be better if I just hated myself” (265).
The most spiritual of people might not be the ones that are considered to be so and the ones who are considered to be so might not be. Hale struggles with this, as he breaks from the court and seeks to pursue a more "grass roots" approach to ridding the town of witches in his desire to extract confessions. It is for this reason that he seems to not want to
Shortly after he starts his journey, he meets with the mysterious traveler with a serpent on his staff. The traveler and Brown venture deeper into the forest and eventually meet with Goody Cloyse, who is revealed to be a witch. Brown and the traveler come across the deacon and minister of Brown’s hometown, discussing their love of “deviltry” and devil worship. Brown then hears the cry of his wife, Faith. This leads Brown to run through the forest searching for his beloved Faith, landing him in a meeting, where guilt, sin, and evil are worshiped.
During the communion of their race, a play on words is also used with dream. For the figure before them says, “Depending upon one another’s hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived” (880). During the length of Hawthorne’s story the word dream appears many times. This puts the question to the reader in which the author also asks out loud, “Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?” (881).
Being accused of being a witch in Salem, Massachusetts was alarming because even if one was innocent, they are still held guilty. So really, instead of the moral being “Innocent until proven guilty” it was more “Guilty until proven
John Blake writes about his interview with pastor, Andy Stanley, in his article “A New Challenge for Andy Stanley.” In the article, Stanley says, “What preachers once taught as biblical truth-slavery is sanctioned by God; women aren’t allowed to preach; gambling and dancing are sins-is now rejected by many churches.” This not only confirms that America’s society does change to accommodate other beliefs, but also that these changes can be good things. The Civil War proves my previous point that these changes don’t always come easily. Today, we are faced with the tension of integrating minority religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism into a Judeo-Christian society due to ignorance and fear of Muslims. We can only speculate what the future holds for these groups and American Society. However, based on what I know of our nation’s history, I expect great things in the end.
The journey that Goodman Brown takes itself is a symbol of good versus evil. He is curious about what is happening out in the forest so he meets up with the “man” or devil who takes him on a journey to see a ceremony and along the way he sees many things that make him think twice. He actually asks himself this question, “What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow?” (155) The man’s staff is gnarled and twisted like a snake which can be thought of as the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve. The staff also acted as a tool to help him move through the forest at a quicker pace. When he leaves his wife at the beginning of the story, her pink ribbons symbolize her virtue and goodness but somewhere in the course of the evening he lost the meanings of those pink ribbons and only saw what Faith might have done while in the forest.
The decline in religion can be caused by personal or societal barriers. These personal experiences can be the result of witnessing the acts of others that cause their own religious beliefs and morals to be questioned. Even the outward appearance of society’s devotion to God and religion can be more routine and done out of necessity. This blasé attitude can adversely affect religion. To secure their religious beliefs people will block out, or create a barrier to protect themselves from feelings or emotions they deem as evil.
Of course, Brown is able to make excuses, such as “…after this on night I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven” , yet despite his excuses, the fact still remains-Brown is willing to give up his faith to test his will to resist temptation. Slowly as Goodman takes his journey, his preconceived notions begin to burst. Every truth Goodman Brown knows about people and about those around him is a lie….. a façade constructed by his inability to see that there is both good and evil in everyone. As they burst Goodman finds himself not able to cope with reality and thus leading to the rejection of his reality and community. Furthermore, Brown is self-righteous.
Also, he would crave goodness in the world. But a lack of omnipotence would prevent him from being able to pursue the threat of evil. Similarly, if God were omnipotent, and omniscient, evil could exist. Possessing these attributes would allow God to take any action necessary to rid the world of evil, and he would always know where and when to be in order to do so. However, in the case that he lacked omnibenevolence, evil would still cast a dark shadow in the world because perhaps God does not desire to relieve it.