Young Goodman Brown
...e the things that he is testing as he travels through the woods. This story can be reduced to one word or a phrase such as Faith. The word faith is a test in its own because it shows us what we must have in order to trust in certain things or be confident in actions that we make. Goodman Brown is a pious man who feels that his life is at the apex of happiness. He has a beautiful wife, a home, and a love for his creator that makes min well respected. From the beginning of the novel as Goodman leaves his wife to go on this twilight errand. “Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done to-night”. As he leaves on an errand the reader can sense that his faith will be tested in more ways than one. Another way that the word “faith” can be used to summarize the story would be the people that he meets on the way. One man is obviously connected to evil by the way that Hawthorne describes his mannerisms and how Goodman Brown feels that he has “an indescribable air of one who knew the world...”, which shows the reader the sense of evil the man brings with him and how his faith must remain strong so he doesn’t give in to temptation. As Goodman departs from this elderly man who is obviously the physical embodiment of the devil, he encounters another woman who taught him catechism when he was younger. Further along the path is where his faith is tested again by Faith, his wife. As he is on his way home he knows that he will lose this battle. Evil is all around him and he cannot fight against it as evil takes over his mind and he sees his wife falling to the throws of evil. This story could easily be defined as the test of faith as how some people just don’t have enough strength to combat it. Young Goodman Brown couldn’t and knew the next day as he went home that his life would never be the same again after what he had witnessed in the woods that night. The other story that could be reduced to one word or phrase would be Ambrose Bierce’s An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, in which a man has been found guilty that is punishable by hanging. Peyton Fahrquhar was the man sitting at the edge of a bridge with a noose around his neck, hands bound, and a sergeant in the military standing behind him on the same plank that would be his last footing ever. This story can be seen as a momentary stream of consciousness as the main character is plunging toward the river with the noose around his neck. The beginning of the story shows us that he is in fact being hanged and there is no way around it, but those few seconds before his life ...