Young Goodman Brown

"A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream...Often, waking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith; and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away" (Hawthorne 547).

The entire last paragraph of this story is an example of what can happen when you become an extremist of your religion. You go down a different path than what the founder of that religion intended. Given Hawthorne's family background he knew this best and learned from his ancestors mistake. I'm sure he had his Grandfather(?) in mind when writing this piece. It was yet another way of distancing himself from him. Young Goodman Brown becomes a terrible person to be around. He distrusts everyone and thinks himself better than them because they are not as extremely religious.

I am noticing a trend with a lot of the authors we have read. They are all touching on topics that seem to be well ahead of their time (maybe because history repeats itself). The ending of this story makes me think of extremist regimes today. Sects of people who claim to be of a particular faith, but who violate the teachings of that religions bible. Take for example the extremists in the middle east, who suicide bomb in the name of Allah, when in reality, the teachings of the Muslim religion would never condone such action--it is supposed to be a peaceful religion. Young Goodman Brown is a good example of people taking religion too far, to the point where it is no longer what was originally intended.