Compare And Contrast Night And Young Goodman Brown

Throughout one’s journey in life, the individual insight of faith in God, in mankind, and within oneself, is a sense of guidance along one’s path. In the absence of faith, one is led to believe to what proves to be true or what is shown to them. Elie Wiesel’s, Night, and Nathanial Hawthorne’s, “Young Goodman Brown”, demonstrates the lack of understanding of faith can not only destroy one’s life, but also crush the beliefs that was once considered true. The texts also show that a person’s recognition of his or her faith can abandon from them, and completely cause them to be torn from God and their religious views due to the occurrence of horrid and troubling experiences. In both Night and “Young Goodman Brown,” the main characters struggle

Like Elie, Young Goodman Brown starts out as having faith and being faithful toward his wife Faith and to himself and others. Young Goodman Brown’s faith is evident when he expresses, “ ‘Amen!’ cried Goodman Brown. ‘Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee’ ” (Hawthorne 1033). When his wife is worried, Young Goodman Brown clearly shows that she and his own faith will not be changed when he comes back, indicating that he stands strong with his faith equivalent to Elie’s view on his faith at the beginning of the book. He clearly shows that his faith cannot be weakened whether it is his wife Faith or his own faith. Even though he knows that he is about to commit a sin, Goodman Brown’s belief in his faith is thought to bring him home safely as the same person with the same views. As the story progresses, Young Goodman Brown has experiences, including evil, that slowly diminishes his faith. Goodman Brown once again shows his faith is strong and present: “ ‘With Heaven above and faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!’ cried Goodman Brown” (Hawthorne 1038). Upon the seeing the town minister and Deacon Gookin riding to the black mass, he still believes that there is a presence of faith in him. Even though he begins to question if there is a heaven above, he still has faith in it due to the view of the “blue arch, and the stars brightening in it” (Hawthorne 1038). Young Goodman Brown will still not accept that there are sinners no matter how they appear on the outside because of his faith within