Similarities Between Langston Hughes And Young Goodman Brown

'Salvation', by Langston Hughes is part of an autobiographical work written in 1940. The author narrates a story centering on a revival gathering that happened in his childhood. During the days leading up to the event, Hughes' aunt tells him repeatedly that he will be 'saved', stressing that he will see a light and Jesus will come into his life. He attends the meeting but when Jesus fails to appear, he is forced by peer pressure to lie and go up and be 'saved'. Hughes uses his story to illustrate how easy it is for children to misinterpret adults and subsequently become disillusioned.

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (New International Version Bible, Matthew 15:8). Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story utilizes extensive symbolism to merge reality with imagination and expose the duplicity of the religious. The theme of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, “Young Goodman Brown” is hypocrisy and can be established by Goodman Brown’s journey, epiphany, and transformation throughout the story.

In most people's lives, there comes a point in time where their perception changes abruptly; a single moment in their life when they come to a sudden realization. In Langston Hughes' 'Salvation', contrary to all expectations, a young Hughes is not saved by Jesus, but is saved from his own innocence.

Between the two readings “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards there are many differences but the two stories still share the same theme. The main theme these stories share is that in a strict society during a narrow-minded time people in hard times tend to fall back with losing their faith and being too weak to withstand giving into self-doubt.

Langston Hughes’ short essay, “Salvation,” is a controversial yet interesting story that brings many conflicts between people in society. He discusses his personal point of view about his religious experience. Although religion has impacted many people throughout the years, it is still an extremely debatable topic. Many people believe that if you go to church you’ll be good for the rest of your life and just because you convince them as kid to behave a certain way, it will stop them from making poor choices, but it does not always work that way. Religion has historically been a problem for so long; it has divided humanity in so many ways. This story represents how much religion can use fear to gain power, but it also brings a sense of hope

In disbelief Young Goodman Brown is devastated, but knows that he still has his Faith. "It would break her dear little heart; and I'd rather break my own!' (214). Trying desperately he holds on to his Christian belief, that he is going to Heaven, even when he recognizes the old woman who passes and says "That old woman taught me catechism!" (215). Soon after he also hears Deacon Gookin and the minister discussing the evenings event. Knowing that these people, in his mind were the forefront of goodness on Earth, he is shattered as, " Young Goodman Brown caught hold of a tree, for support, being ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburdened with the heavy sickness of his heart " (216).

Langston Hughes’s personal narrative “Salvation” is a recollection of Hughes’s experience with salvation at a religious revival at his aunt’s church. He recounts his experience in order to describe how it led to his enormous guilt over deceiving his aunt and the congregation and how it stemmed his disbelief in religion. His ironic tone and vivid imagery plays a key role in the development of the conflict and the complications that he faces. In order to dramatize suspenseful moments and magnify key points, he uses an array of rhetorical devices.

In order for an individual to effectively rebel against an established society, he or she must maintain some degree of power. If leaders or majority groups intend to revolt against an aspect of society, they simply speak or act against their issue. A member of marginalized group does not have the liberty of rebelling so directly, as he or she would be immediately isolated. In addition, taking a stand through an unappreciated aspect of one’s status in society would be futile. Therefore, an individual must find his or her value to society and utilize it as their method for rebellion. This is exemplified in both Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, as women rebel against society without using their voices. The main characters, Janie and Hester, defy gender roles through external appearances, maintaining silence, and accepting sexuality. Both Hawthorne and Hurston reveal society’s value of women’s external persona through female characters’ nonverbal rebellion.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” tells the tale of a man whose Puritan beliefs were shaken to the core because reality turned out to be much different than he was taught in catechism. Goodman Brown showed readers how much he believed in his family’s goodness when he claimed “We have been a race of honest men and good Christians… We are a people of prayer, and good works, to boot, and abide no such wickedness” (Hawthorne 247). Because of this, Brown is surprised when he comes to know that people he thought were holy were in fact advocates for the devil and sinners- especially his wife Faith. People that he held in the highest regard were nothing but the lowest of the low to him now. He becomes surly, loses all faith in humanity, and develops a bitter worldview after this revelation.

“Young Goodman Brown” and “Good Country People” are short stories written a little more than 100 years apart by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Flannery O’Connor respectively, and they both follow similar themes about religion and faith in a parallel sense. “Young Goodman Brown” follows the story of a devout Puritan losing his faith in God and humanity through a journey in the woods. While “Good Country People” follows the story of an amputee woman who is “tricked” by a fake Bible salesman into going out with him as she is seduced by his Christian principles. Both “Young Goodman Brown” and “Good Country People” depict a story of faith but in reciprocal directions. “Young Goodman Brown” and “Good Country People” argue how one’s faith and identity can so easily be weakened and undermined by outside influences and temptations using techniques and views typical of Romanticism and Southern Gothic respectively.

Faith plays a major role in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown”. From the start of his journey to his arrival back home, Faith is always in the back of head, making him question his surroundings and own thoughts. It’s hard to determine when he’s speaking of his lovely wife Faith or his Faith in his God and religion. Through his many

Cried he, after one stupefied moment. ' There is no good on earth, and sin is but a name. Come devil! For to thee is this world given” (392). While Goodman Brown is shouting in anger he finally arrives to the black mass he sees so many people that were considered good, and pure from his community, he then believes that there is no faith anymore.

Young Goodman Brown story was very interesting as it talked about God and Brown’s faith. When he went out in the forest in Salem Village, I believed everything that happened was something conjured by evil but Brown put himself in that situation. That morning, his wife Faith asked him for a hug and kiss, and tried to convince her husband Brown, not to go into the forest at night. She whispered in his ear, “Put off your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed tonight, (Brown 386).” Faith was a Godly woman who always prayed for her and her husband. She too had troubled dreams and thoughts. She was afraid of herself sometimes, especially of her thoughts. Brown never knew about her doubtful thoughts. Brown didn’t understand with it being

In the short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown feels conflicted about leaving his new wife, Faith, for a journey for sinful reasons into the nearby forest. With a call to devious actions and a hypocritical train of thought, Goodman Brown seals his fate after his night long journey. This journey includes a treacherous road of trials. In the end, Goodman Brown has a moment of epiphany and then returns to his town a changed man. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown,” reveals that a loss of religious beliefs and moral code can lead to devastation not only within oneself, but within one's relationships with the individuals around him or her.

In "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne tells the story of one man’s loss of faith in the human race. As Goodman Brown travels into the woods one night, he is sees the innermost secrets and desires of the people he once placed upon a pedestal. He sees that humans are evil by nature, and this causes him to lose faith in his fellow man. By viewing the story as an allegory, the journey into the woods is associated with the Puritan concept of justification. The Puritans viewed justification, or the means by which one receives the salvation of Christ, as a psychological journey into the "hell (or evil) of the self" (Soler). Goodman Brown fails to complete his process of individuation because