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

Looking closely into the way Flannery O’Connor and Nathanial Hawthorne portray good and evil through their characters in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Young Goodman Brown.” There are some shared items between the writing style of O’Conner and Hawthorne which include that themes are shared as they both revolve around everyone being guilty of something, that both the characters Goodman Brown and the Grandmother tried to find the good in bad at some point in the story. The characters go through different turn of events which leads to the realization that the world is not all good or bad, and that when put in dire situations an understanding, or compassion that was previously not exhibited can be shown to better display themselves. In “A Good

Man Is Hard to Find” (AGMHTF) the grandmother is seen as someone who viewed the negatives in life then realized the good in it when faced with death, whereas Goodman Brown is the opposite he saw the good then saw the world as nothing but evil. The stories differ in some sense of their purpose, O’Connor’s story shows how one can be granted grace by god whereas Hawthorne writes of the Hypocrisy in Puritan society. Each story is similar by the themes and the way characters act, they differ by showing a different purpose and background.
As the authors were writing some of their background may have influenced the way in which they write. For example, O’Connor was a Catholic, and Catholicism focuses on three main theological truths, the Fall, the Redemption, and the Judgment. These three truths can be seen throughout the story in “AGMHTF.” Hawthorne on the other hand was Puritan, and Puritans believe that God expects them to live according to the Scriptures and to set a good example that would set sinners to change their sinful ways.
O’Connor and Hawthorne both agree and express in their writing that everyone is guilty of something. As the writing progresses for the authors, their intent is to show that everyone in the world has done something wrong and nobody is perfect. This is seen in “YGB,” when Goodman Brown goes into the forest thinking the townsfolk are good people then he witnesses the Witches Sabbath. From that he realizes that the people that he thought to be proper people all actually have a big downside. This shows him that the world is not all good. In “AGMHTF,” the Misfit has accepted that everyone is capable of doing wrong, and he accepts the consequences which come with his wrongdoings. “You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you’re going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it” (O’Connor 13). This shows how the Misfit realizes that everyone does something wrong and that they will eventually get punished for those actions. Both Misfit and Goodman Brown see that all people are responsible of some wrong doing.
The grandmother and Goodman Brown are both similar in the sense that at some point in the story they try to find the good in the bad. The grandma did not find this outlook on things until faced with the fear of death. She tried to pull out information on why the misfit was a good man to try and save herself from dying. In “YGB,” Goodman Brown was a very optimistic person from the start he saw only the good in people. In his mind the world was in complete harmony.
Throughout the “AGMHTF,” the grandmother view point on life changes.

At the beginning of the story she she’s sees the world as a disaster waiting to happen. She worries that at any given moment something bad could occur for example when they are about to go on the trip and she worries that the cat will asphyxiate itself, so she ends up bringing her on the trip. Then as the story develops, she encounters the Misfit. This confrontation allows her to not only become stronger in her faith with God, but she also starts to find the good in those who have sinned, and thinks that everyone deserves a second chance. Although in “YGB,” Brown starts off optimistic in the sense that he sees more good in the world than bad. Most of his hope comes from the people around and seeing through the story “his friends and neighbors whom he has honored and reverenced most even Faith his wife, in league with the Devil, he abandons hope” (Cherry 6). By this, you can see characters in both stories are seen as contrasts of each other as Brown had lost all of his faith whereas the grandmother at the end grew very close to her

faith.
Each story has a different purpose for being written.

“A Good Man is Hard to Find,” was written to show how one has the option to be granted grace from God, and “Young Goodman Brown,” was written to show the hypocrisy of Puritan Society. In the Christian religion those who ask for forgiveness are released of their sins and are granted grace. While the grandmother was talking to the misfit she was petrified because she thought she was going to die. In a dire situation such as this, people tend to look for a route of desperation. In this case it led the grandmother to try to explain how the Misfit was actually a good person, in the end she connected with God where she speaks “the truth about human nature violently confronts her, and this does indeed lead to grace” (McDavid 3). This grace shows the ability of God to forgive. Hawthorne was showing how Puritan society can be the very opposite of grace giving. Nathanial Hawthorne was writing to show how the true issue in that time period was Puritanism itself in the fact that there is no middle ground between good and bad. They could not accept the fact that “all men are sinners and hypocrites” (McKeithan 1). Their belief system held that human beings were irredeemable creatures from the moment of their creation, and to attain everlasting life in heaven was through God’s divine benevolence although they still had the belief that those who God had chosen for salvation would be consequently be compelled to live holier lives than

those who were damned. By having the ceremony in the woods it shows how many people had true belief in God and showed that there are only those who are perfect purity or eternally damned sin.
As each story goes further in-depth, the story is unraveled more by the reader as they realize what the true purpose of each writing is. The reader also realizes that some aspects of each reading are similar but others are not such as the background of the author which influences the way they write and the way some of the character’s view life. There are multiple similarities and differences between Nathanial Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” these comparisons make the audience realize that everyone is guilty of something and shows them that faith can be restored or destroyed within a short period of time.