Lit210

Axia at University of Phoenix LIT 210 Student Axia “Loss of Hope” 00/00/00 Personal choices can cause one to lose faith. In “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, faith is steered by personal choices. The two stories highlight initial loss of faith through personal choices. Brown abandons his young “faith” and journeys into the unknown where evil is waiting for him. Brown is new in his faith, “My love and my Faith, of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done ‘twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married'” (p 80). Faith is pictured as Brown’s wife and a good use of symbolism. Brown is confident that leaving her behind is suitable. Expound on the personal choice Brown is making. Brown responds to the initial meeting of evil as if he was surprised but expecting evil to be waiting for him. Brown states, “Faith kept me back a while” (p 81). Brown obviously continues to make a choice to proceed while knowing that this cannot possibly be wise. The height of Brown’s turmoil is when he sees Goody Cloyse, the woman who had taught Brown his catechism. Brown recognizes that she is dealing with evil and is apprehensive about going further. “Not another step will I budge on this errand. What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven: is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith and go after her'” (p 84). Brown clearly has yet another choice to make; continue on the journey or turn back. Langston Hughes is a twelve year old boy who is confronted with the decision to “accept” his salvation or lose his Jesus. Langston is faithful that he will see Jesus and be saved because his Aunt had told him so. “My aunt told me that when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside!” (p 281) Langston seemed to have been waiting for the children meeting at the revival and his turn to see Jesus. As Langston waits in the church to meet Jesus, he is surrounded by a parade of people singing, crying, and dancing. The people in the church are characterized as sinners. When the preacher asks for the children to come, Langston just sat there with most of the other children. Langston wants to see Jesus, but here he is making a choice to not take the opportunity. Langston was the last child to go to the preacher for salvation. “Now it was really getting late. I began to be ashamed of myself, holding everything up so long. …So I decided that maybe to save further trouble, I’d better lie, too, and say that Jesus had come, and get up and be saved.” (p 282). Langston abandoned his real faith, and decided to please the preacher and Langston’s aunt. Both stories indicate a sincere heartbreak after the loss of faith. Brown was agonized after learning that the people who he believed were good, were actually toying with the devil. He pleaded with his wife, “Faith! Faith! Look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one.” (p 89). Hawthorne shows the audience how Brown struggles with the conflict between good and evil. All Brown had known seemed to be a lie. Langston was tormented by his loss, “That night, for the last time in my life but one – for I was a big boy twelve years old I cried. I cried, in bed alone, and couldn’t stop. I buried my head under the quilts.” (p282). Langston was defeated and no longer believed that there was a Jesus. * Conclusion: Both stories are indicative of what it is like to journey through a series of choices and lose faith. The similarities between Goodman Brown and Langston are that they both were faithful and innocent in the beginning of the stories. They also both regarded the people that surrounded them as good in the beginning and then “bad” in the end. The loss of their faith resulted in seeing things differently. The differences between Goodman Brown and Langston is Brown was already a Puritan, or saved while Langston only had the promise from his aunt that he would one day see Jesus. Also different is that Brown had many choices to make and chances to go back, Langston only made one choice. Losing faith is also about losing hope. Faith is often defined as placing hope in the unseen. One can assume that for this reason, Hawthorne vividly described the loss of Brown’s faith. It is not often that the loss of faith can be seen as much as described. Langston Hughes used great imagery to describe the setting in which he lost his faith because it also played a very important role in the story. No matter how the loss of faith happens, when it comes, it changes the course of the future as well as your perception of people, places, and the world. References Hawthorne, N. (1846). Young Goodman Brown. In R. Abcarian and M. Klotz (Ed.). Literature: The Human Experience (9th ed.) (pp 80-90). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. Hughes, L. (1940). Salvation. In R. Abcarian and M. Klotz (Ed.). Literature: The Human Experience (9th ed.) (383-391). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.