No matter what period of time you live in there is always the thought in everyone’s mind of the devil or some type of evil spirit. These two short stories, Young Goodman Brown and The Man in the Black Suit, took place in different time periods. However, both of these main characters thought of some evil being in existence and had encounters with these evil beings. Both of these stories took place in times when religion was a very important of everyday life. They were times when the speak of evil or signs of evil doing were treated with the most severe punishment.
Both of these stories have many similarities, but also some differences. In this paper these two stories will be compared and contrasted to show this. Young Goodman Brown, took place around 1835 in a town in New England during the period of time when the Salem Witch Trials were taking place. The Man in the Black Suit, was based on the story of Goodman Brown. It took place in 1914 in a country setting.
Both of these stories took place in their respective city or town, but a majority of both stories took place in the forest. Goodman Brown was a recently wed man who cared very much for his wife. He was a good man, hence his name, but he had some business to take care of and to do that he had to journey into the forest. Gary, the main character in, The Man in the Black Suit, was a young boy. Gary lived with his parents and had recently suffered the loss of his older brother who tragically died after being stung by a bee.
The Essay on Lord Of The Flies "Is Man Inherently Evil?"
Is man inherently evil? Many people have different answers to this question some do not believe that there is such a thing as good or evil. What is good and evil? Is evil a part of every human being from the moment he is on this planet? I think that man himself chooses in which direction to go to and the environment influences his or her decisions. Many think that you are not inherently evil or ...
Gary was also journeying into the forest, unsupervised, to go fishing at a nearby creek. These two stories although similar are written from two different points of view. The story about Goodman Brown is told in 3 rd person and the story about Gary is told in 1 st person. The way that each story was written makes them equally effective methods of storytelling although they are different points of view. While the plots of these stories differ there are many occurrences during each story that are very similar. Goodman Brown and Gary both go on adventures into the forest.
When departing for their journey they both leave something behind and while walking away they both consider going back because they are concerned about what they are leaving. Goodman looks back and sees his young wife Faith. He looks at her face and sees her worry and concern, but he knows that he must continue and that he will see that face again the next day. When Gary looks back he sees his mother waving to him. He knows how worried his mother is not only because Gary is going into the forest alone, but because she had already lost one son in that forest. He debates whether leaving his mother to worry is a good idea, but takes the risk and continues on his way.
Both of these characters show signs of hesitation, but their outcomes are the same. They continue on their way with the belief that nothing is going to happen to them. There walk through the forest is very similar in detail. They are both walking into a dark area that does not have a designated path. They hear sounds, they smell things, and they feel the gloom that lurks within the forest. While in the forest they both encounter an evil being.
They both claim that the evil being before them must be the devil, or an apprentice to the devil. This person speaks to both of them and he knows about their pasts. This person talks to Goodman about knowing his father and his grandfather. He assures Goodman that the help he is asking for is not something to be frightened of because both his father and grandfather had asked for help before.
The person who speaks to Gary refers to his as “fisher boy.” He kills the bee upon Gary’s lap with the simple clap of his hands. He refers to the death of Gary’s brother as if he had been there and gave great detail to what happened. He also informed Gary that at this very moment his mother was suffering a bee sting that would end her life. While Gary’s encounter ended with the meeting of the man in the black suit, Goodman’s did not. Goodman went on to seeing all sorts of evil things. He saw many important members of his church congregation, but not in the atmosphere in which he was used to.
The Essay on Goodman
What is theme? Theme is what the author is saying about the subject of the story. In "Young Goodman Brown" the subject of the story is hypocrisy. In "Young Goodman Brown", Hawthorne writes in detail how hypocrisy can change a person for the worse. In the opening pages of the story you can see how hypocrisy is already starting to change Goodman Brown for the worse. As he starts out on his errand ...
He saw them all as evil people and all of these people were trying to convert him onto the dark side. This differed from Gary though because the devil did not try to convert, but more or less scared him to death. Both of these characters when encountering this evil being had the thought to run, but in the end they were so filled with fear they became immobile. The end of these stories was almost exact in the way that each character dealt with the experience they had just had. They both came to the realization that what they saw could have possibly been a dream although there was evidence that there may have been some truth to the situation.
In either case what these two characters encountered was something that haunted them throughout their lives and something that they could not let go out of their minds. There were many similarities and differences I found in the comparison of these two stories, but only some are talked about in this paper. If I were to read each of these stories separately without knowing that they were based on one another it would still have been an easy correlation to make. These stories were both written about similar topics, but they were written in different perspectives. The way that each of these stories was written was very fitting for what the stories talked about.
Because these stories were written about similar topics it made it very easy to compare and contrast them, but it was more difficult for me to understand the story of Goodman Brown because of the writing style that was chosen. There are still some things that I do not understand about each of these stories, but for the most part I grasp the concepts that each was alluding to.
