The Downfall of Faith

What happens when someone has too much faith? Better yet, what *is* faith? A belief in a thing or person that you can't see or touch at the time? A hope for something better? Fear, maybe?

What about faith in God - or a god, at any rate?

Should someone with religious faith fear their god? Should a god *be* feared?

Better yet, what are the implications of fear - what can fear lead to? Paranoia? Mistrust? False judgment? And what happens when these things combine - the paranoia, mistrust, and false judgment? What is the final outcome?

Well, there could be just about anything, honestly. But if you want a good, quick example, just take a look at any Puritan Colonial Salem Witch Trial text - or any text about the Salem Witch Trials. Hawthorn is a great example with *Young Goodman Brown*.

(For the sake of redundancy, we shall refer to god as God, and God will be the name provided, since there are far too many deities in far too many faiths to include every one. This by no means promotes one belief or creed over another. This is simply for the sake of the author's typing hands and short span of attention - if I go into too may deity names, I'll forget the point that I was trying to make!)

As you know from our previous discussions, Hawthorn's family line goes all the way back to the trials. I'm honestly not sure about you, but I think that he might have been a little embarrassed by the actions of his forefathers. I mean, if one of my forefathers went and killed a bunch of people because of hysteria (which would be the accumulation of the things that I've mentioned before), I would be a little head-ducky too. Come to think of it, I would probably change my name as well.

Anywho, Hawthorn uses Brown as sort of the everyman or the the Joe Schmo. He could be anyone from any time and from any faith. It doesn't have to be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Pagan/Wiccan (which for notes: Pagan/Wiccan is totally different from Satanism... just saying... :|), or anything I'm forgetting. When I say anything, I mean *anything*. We touched briefly on the fact that Goodie Faith, Brown's wife, wears pink ribbons - which is the mixing of red and white... what some argue as good/purity (white) and evil (red), but we never really talked about the fact that Goodman Brown is also a color... brown.

What is brown?

Brown is... brown is neutral, neuder, natural. Brown can be worn by either man or woman, boy or girl. Brown is everywhere - in homes, in landscapes, in *earth*. The muddy mire that is brown is neither good nor evil.

Could that be why Hawthorn chose to name his main character Brown? After all, remember what Brown goes through. And remember what was discussed in class: about how Brown could be testing the waters about the differences between knowledge and faith; about how he left his faith at home for a time while he tried the world. (But that just raised another question: why can't he have both world knowledge *and* religious faith?)

In life, what are the significance of colors? When we're sad, we're blue. When we're happy, we're yellow (or something bright). If we're a girl, we're pink or purple. If we're a boy, we're some shade of blue. We go green to be conscious of the environment. We assign so many colors to so many moods. Why should faith be any different? And what colors would be good and evil? Why?

Likewise, when a person becomes too pious - too religious - is that a bad thing? I think that if we rely only on faith, it could blind us just as easily as any of the Seven Deadly Sins - or work or family... too much of a good thing can definately be just as bad as a bad thing.

When Goodman Brown comes back from his journey through the woods, he sees everything differently. Instead of seeing the people he knows and loves as good, everything is put under with an evil lens - things become twisted and quasi-demonic. Brown only sees himself as pure and good and still faithful to God. Everyone else is knocked down from the pedistol. I wonder if Brown finds it lonely up there all alone? Is it just me, or does anyone else think that Hawthorne uses Brown as an example for what all the Puritans did to those who didn't quite fit into their idea of normal. (But then, what *is* normal?) Obviously, I think that the idea of normal changes with advancements that take place throughout time. With the scientific advancements that we discover - like certain diseases that make poeple do unusual things, like turrets or OCD or autism, we realize that there is a reason for them to yell out weird things or touch a door three, ten, or thirteen times, or be withdrawn from society. They aren't possessed by a writhing incubus or succubus. There's something wrong in their genetic makeup. It's not exactly spiritual - it's more medical. At the time (and this is still good in some cases), people used leaches and bloodletting to cure everything in the belief that all fluids in the body must be even and the bad blood must be let out.

In a few years, we'll look back at the hysteria that was H1N1 and laugh at how we jumped at every cough, sniffle, and sneeze. I'm sure that - though this is much more... morbid... - but a while after the witch trials, when everything calmed down, they looked back and thought they were goofy for being so scared of their neighbor.

But I think that we can all learn a lesson from them too: Don't be so quick to judge, ne? When we see someone different next to us - someone who thinks differently, dresses differently, or acts differently - don't automatically assume the worst. When you see someone dressed all in black, don't automatically assume that they're Satan worshipers (but if that's you thing, fine. I'm not judging.) Just be cool, and I think that something like the Salem Trials can be avoided.