Compare And Contrast A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Young Goodman Brown

In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Young Goodman Brown undergoes a transformation that shifts from similarities of the grandmother to the Misfit. With beliefs alike to both the Misfits and the grandmother’s, Brown’s persona alters from his naive views as he believes that everyone had an equivalent faith until he is accumulated into thinking more judiciously. In the beginning, he was like the grandmother because his entire faith was given to God, yet he was willing to meet with the devil. This caused him to contain similar qualities to the grandmother as they are both ignorant. Their confidence regarding faith weakened due to the encounter of fear, when realizing their true faiths. Only experiencing divine grace once proven wrong and discovering the truth about themselves along with their previous beliefs.

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.

In the short story “A good Man is Hard to Find” written by Flannery O’Connor in 1953 and set in the rural southern United States, there are many themes, such as the importance of family, good versus evil, and Christian theology. The theme of good versus evil is more prominent throughout the story. This analysis will attempt to prove the theme of good versus evil that is present throughout all aspects, as seen in its characters, motifs, and symbolism, of thus producing a compelling and adventurous piece of literature.

The grandmother is the central character in the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor. She is also a very well rounded and dynamic character. She shows various characteristics and reveals various remarks as they story progresses. Some of her qualities include selfish and a pushy person. She is also kind of manipulator in a way that she insists her family to change the plan. At the beginning of the story when we first realize her desire to visit her childhood house, she is being a very selfish person. Examining her conversation with her son Bailey, the grandmother is moreover a pushy person. She is convincing Bailey to change the trip plan according to her need only and which will

Exploring the idea that all men are born sinners, O’Connor demonstrates immoral indulgences entertained by various characters. Readers are introduced to grandmother, an elderly woman whose consistent unscrupulous behavior exhibits her inner motives. Grandmother uses subtle, indirect confrontation to get her way until she is faced with The Misfit, a runaway criminal who believes that crime is a justifiable. In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” Flannery O’Connor uses characterization to display a loss of morals, imagery to portray evil in society, and symbolism to emphasize the struggle of obtaining grace to prove how life is nihilistic without religion.

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.

During the family trip in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” to Georgia, the grandmother attempts to exude a lady-like facade. The grandmother wears “white cotton gloves...a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets … a

“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.

In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” O’Connor introduces a family whose lives ironically turn up side down while on a trip to Florida. For instance, before leaving on the trip, the grandmother (who wants to go to Tennessee in stead of Florida) tells her son, Bailey, about the newspaper article. Thus, the article states that a prisoner escapes to Florida and calls himself the misfit. However, her son basically ignores her and they end up taking the trip to Florida regardless of the warning. Also, the grandmother takes her cat, Pitty Sing, along on the trip in order to prevent any mishaps by leaving her behind. In addition, the grandmother wears a pin so that if she dies in an accident anyone who finds her, knows that she is a woman. Moreover, she points out several different sights on her way to Florida. Most significantly, she says, “Look at

After reading “A Good Man Is Hard To Find“ the irony of the story is very clear. The first sentence in this short story is “The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida.” In fact, the grandmother goes on to try to persuade her son Bailey and is wife not to take their trip to Florida but Tennessee instead. The grandmother informs her family about the fellow, the misfit, and all the horrible things he says he has done to people. “Just you read it I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that a loose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did.” Ironically, that is exactly what she does when she convinces her son Bailey to take the family down a deserted road to see a house with secret panels. The grandma’s sudden recollection

Flannery O’Connor is an American short story writer and her short story “Good Country People” depicts Hulga, a highly educated woman and has a PhD, is being jerked around by an immoral bible salesman. “A good man is hard to find”, also written by O’Connor, is a short story of a grandmother and her family murdered by a horrible man who called “the misfit” during the road trip to Florida. Although “Good country people” and “a good man is hard to find” are written by the same author, many elements in those two stories cause them have similar themes in religion, misplaced trust and protagonist and antagonist.

Many people have a different definition of a “good” man. Flannery O’ Connor short-story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” gives readers a brief view on the subject. In the story the foundation for what makes a good man seems to only come from the grandmother. However when she is faces with a disadvantage by Misfit, he puts a twist on her views, and shatters that foundation. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is neither a happy nor sad story, both characters have many flaws and seem undeserving, but through an unexpected encounter they both found grace and redemption.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne introduces Goodman Brown, who doubts himself and reiterates his false confidence to himself repeatedly. His struggle between the evil temptations, the devil, and the proper church abiding life, is a struggle he does not think he can handle. This story is about a man who challenges his faith in himself and in the community in which he resides. Goodman Brown must venture on a journey into the local forest, refuse the temptations of the devil, and return to the village before the sunrise.

Looking at “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the reader is introduced to a family very early on in the story. With a particular character standing out, the grandmother. Her

Goodman Brown has to fight, not only himself against temptation, but the people he thought he knew and trusted, in the battle of good versus evil. Whether or not any of the events from that night actually occurred is unknown, but Goodman Brown spends the rest of his life believing the worst of everyone, even Faith, and dies a lonely, bitter man. Hawthorne’s central idea is that while people may appear to be good on the outside, evil is something that everyone has the capability to fall victim to.