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

with their religion and ultimately lose their faith system due to their complete change of character.
Night by Elie Wiesel primarily tells the horror and evil of the concentration camps that resulted in a loss of faith in God and within himself of the main character; however, at the beginning of the novel, he starts out having faith. Elie is shown to be faithful and concerned about his faith at the beginning, making it clear that there is a clear view in the presence of faith in the novel. At the beginning of the book, Elie wants to know more about life, God, and himself: “By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple” (Wiesel 3). Elie was observant at an early age, and when he found out about the destruction of the Temple, he cried and prayed at night. The weeping over the destruction of the Temple clearly showed that his religion was very important to him. All Elie ever wanted to do was to learn more about his religion, so when the Temple was destroyed, Elie thought as if his religion was destroyed; however, his strong sense of faith clearly was shown when he went on his own to find his own “master” to gain additional knowledge instead of the Temple. faith in himself, at the beginning of the story, is at its peak and desires to gain more knowledge of his religion regardless of the cost to himself. Elie clearly shows that he wants to his own God and faith, implying that he wants to strengthen his own faith, when he states, “He wanted to drive the idea of studying Kabbalah from my mind. In vain. I succeeded on my own in finding a master for myself in the person of Moishe the beadle” (Wiesel 4). At an early age, Elie has a wide-eyed, yet strong faith in God, so when Elie’s father thinks he is too young to have his own faith, Elie went on his own to specifically know more about God and his own faith with finding a “master” for himself thus making Moishe the beadle his mentor. He visits Moishe the beadle often to learn more and to ask questions like, “Why did I pray?” which clearly shows that he wants to strengthen his faith and come closer to God through questions and prayers.
However, as Night progresses into each chapter of Elie’s experiences, Elie is shown to be alone in a world without God or man thus causing a complete change of his perspective on his life and God. Elie Wiesel’s faith throughout the book is shown through the experiences he has had in the concentration camps. Eliezer’s struggle with faith within himself and God is evident when he tells the readers, “Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust” (Wiesel 32). Elie realizes that he and his father have survived the first selection at Birkenau and he reflects upon his first night in the concentration camp and its lasting effect toward his life. He struggles physically and mentally for his life and no longer believes in his God, his dreams, and in himself due to his lack of faith and the everlasting memories he has had that destroyed his faith. Elie Wiesel’s experiences with the Nazis and the prisoners showed him that God wasn’t on his “side,” and that caused him to lose his faith. Elie clearly describes that he and the prisoners’ view on God is meaningless, and begins to feel stronger than God himself:
We were masters of nature, the masters of the world. We had transcended everything---death, fatigue, our natural needs. We were stronger than cold and hunger, stronger than the guns and the desire to die, doomed and rootless, nothing but numbers, we were the only men on earth. (Wiesel 87)
As the prisoners, including Elie, marched during the night, once they arrived, Elie felt a sense of strength that powered over God. As if they “were the only men of earth,” they have survived through things that others couldn’t even imagine of, so that created a sense of feeling superior to God. Elie and the prisoners of the concentration camp have replaced God as the “master(s) of the world” and have concluded that they have taken the place of God. After he and the prisoners are torn from their souls once again, they begin to question God, which potentially gives them a new perspective on life and their dreams. Elie’s experiences have shown him the despairing view on being alone in the world, implying that God is not with him anymore. He essentially sees his faith as a “mere illusion” (Wiesel 87). Throughout the Night, Elie Wiesel loses his faith in God and within himself due to the horrid experiences that caused him to question, making a clear presentation of the loss of faith within the main characters.
“Young Goodman Brown” creates an intriguing story about a young husband who is lead to experience a night that would change his character forever from having faith to not having it at all.

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

himself.
However, as “Young Goodman Brown” advances into the story of Goodman Brown and his faith, the main character is shown to have lost his faith due to the experiences he went through, which was similar to Night. Like Elie, Young Goodman Brown thinks highly of all his religious acquaintances; however, as the story progresses, he begins to abandon his faith due to the more he learns. When Young Goodman Brown hears Faith’s voice in the sky and eventually sees a pink ribbon, his faith collapses in a hopeless cry: “My Faith is gone!” cried he, after one stupefied moment” (Hawthorne 1038). Goodman Brown goes out on a mysterious journey into the dark and dreary forest to meet with his evil companion who is the devil himself. Throughout his journey, his worldview on the people who he thought were good had turned upside down, and is shown the ultimate proof that his faith has been lost when he cries that his Faith has vanished indicating both his wife, Faith, and his own faith has completely disappeared. As Young Goodman Brown learns that there is a bad side to people, he begins to lose faith in everyone, including himself. When Young Goodman Brown sees his wife Faith “with the pink ribbons” he has a different outlook on life, one that stresses the sinning nature in humanity, so, as a result, he walks on ignoring Faith, seeing that she is no longer pure to him (Hawthorne 1042). When Faith had lost her ribbons, it was believed by Young Goodman Brown that she had definitely fallen into the world of evil. However, when his wife, Faith, returns with the pink ribbons in her hair, she had retained her faith back due to the portrayal of the pink ribbons representing her faith. Young Goodman Brown could not deal with the fact that his wife had a bad “side,” so he lost his Faith, his faith within himself, and his faith in everyone surrounding him. Even though she retained her faith back, he has the ability to see the evil in every human, and once he started seeing it, he cannot stop, resulting in not trusting anyone.
Night and “Young Goodman Brown” shows the readers that their main characters relinquish their faith due to their struggles with their experiences with God and within themselves, which potentially causes them to completely change at the end of the story. The two authors, Elie Wiesel and Nathaniel Hawthorne, clearly represent that the main character’s loss of faith blind them from their dreams, their god, and themselves. In both the characters, Elie and Young Goodman Brown has given up all hope, and caused their faith to be entirely gone. In Night, Elie Wiesel struggles with his faith, which is considered to be the highest morality of survival, and as he survives through all of his occurrences, he begins to lose his faith all together. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown has faith in his own moral beliefs, yet he has lost his faith in the rest of the world to hold these beliefs, which causes him to believe that evil can only come from evil. Both of these texts show the loss of faith through their main characters, and show the dreadful and eye-opening experiences can lead a person to neglect their faith and be completely diminished.