in singing holy psalms. Goodman Brown "would turn pale whenever the minister spoke from the bible." He shrank from his wife, scowled when his "family knelt down for prayer" and his "dying hour was gloom."The "fellow-traveler" who suddenly appears "at the foot of an old tree" is symbolic of evil and seems to be the devil. He carries a staff shaped in the image of a snake that "assumes life." The staff also consumes life as is it does when the devil uses it to transport "Goody Cloyse" to her destination. The devil allows Brown to see corruptness. The devil magnifies Brown's temptation when he tells him of his relatives and peers succumbing to these evil doings. When he shows Brown these people that are his relatives and mentors choose to walk with the devil, Goodman Brown becomes disheartened. He can no longer trust anyone. After the journey Brown doubts everyone's faith and no longer trusts what people say. Everyone is evil.The journey through the woods is a metaphor for the journey that Goodman Brown and all humans, must face in choosing which path to take in life. This story revolves around Goodman Brown's decision to discard his formerly pious life for one of hate, distrust and misery. He becomes evil. In the end, few people were willing to acknowledge his existence "when he was born to his grave, besides neighbors not a few, carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone." In effect, he became the evil that everyone else turned their back on....
