Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” follows a Puritan man’s nightmarish encounter with the devil, which results in the loss his faith and virtue. Flannery O’Connor’s tale “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” details how a southern grandmother is only able to discover what it truly means to be good when she is faced with imminent death. Both texts showcase the classic battle of good versus evil, and provide altering viewpoints on the possible outcomes of this faceoff. The stories by Hawthorne and O’Connor both tell the tale of what occurs when a seemingly righteous and faithful person is faced with a character of pure evil, though the stories’ starkly contrasting settings and tones build each story in a different direction. Although the themes of the stories are strikingly similar, the difference in setting helps to shape how the encounter between good and evil plays out.
Character Sketch The Devil and Tom Walker Title The story "The Devil and Tom Walker" written by Washington Irving, published in 1824, consists of a protagonist named Tom Walker. The story dates in the year 1727, taking place in England, thus adding to the literary context to the story quite nicely. The story features a very ill mannered man named Tom Walker, tempted by the one very mythical creature, The Devil. The Devil represents a reflection of a side of Tom; an entity embedded within the simple soul that he is. The Devil also literally represents the gold of Kidd the Pirate.
“Civil Disobedience” – refused to pay state tax b/c opposed Mexican war III. The flowering of American literature A. Nathaniel Hawthorne – New England Writer, haunted by Puritan ancestors (Salem Witch trial judge); impossible to remove all sin from human soul B. Emily Dickinson – original & powerful Poet; themes: life, death, fear, loneliness, nature, god C. Washington Irving – proof American could make career of literature, adept imitator D. James Fenimore Cooper – conflict: Man vs. backwoods nature; romances of frontier life; model for cowboy movie, novels E. Edgar Allan Poe – Gothic horror short stories; inventor of detective story; fear most powerful emotion F. William Gilmore Simms – gentleman of letters G. Herman Melville – realistic fiction (based on his adventures at sea), Moby‐Dick H. Walt Whitman – explicit sexual references; homoerotic elements; rejects women’s domestic sphere I. The popular
When Patrick Henry issued his legendary cry, was this the patriotic war call of a revolutionary, or the stifled plea of a suicidal? Though the modern euthanasia, or assisted suicide, movements did not find their way into the United States until 1938, suicide has long lived in the hearts of men desiring freedom. Early Christians, known as the Donatists, often marched into Roman courts or stopped a passersby and demanded death and a place among the martyrs. Even Jean Rousseau, upon whose Enlightenment-era political writings this nation’s government was based, promoted that, “when our life... becomes a misery to ourselves and is of advantage to no one, we are at liberty to put an end to our being.” More recently, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,
By casting Richard (a York) as a villain Shakespeare is affirming to his Elizabethan audience of the emergent middle class and the nobility of the Tudor’s legitimate right to rule over England. The play also reflects the tension between providentalism and the growing secular interest in free will. This shift from God’s will to free will is particularly evident in the character of Richard as he fights for power and leadership, disregarding his conscience and religion. Al Pacino’s 1996 documentary Looking for Richard produced for an American audience that fails to see how Shakespeare is relevant to the world around them “It has always been a dream of mine to communicate how I feel about Shakespeare to others”. However like Richard III, Looking for Richard was set after another significant conflict in the Cold War.
“The Devil and Tom Walker” Michael Nwaogu English 11 Mr. Ortiz Period 2 February 1, 2013 A story of tragedy in both religion and business. In the story “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, Tom is egotistic and has an impatient approach towards everything, Tom doubts the decisions he make with the devil due to the exchange of his soul to the devil to become an usurer. Washington Irving’s story relates to the “Faustian” archetype because Tom Walker also sales his soul to the devil but, somewhat there’s differences between eachother Faust an old German character who sold his soul to the devil exchange for knowledge as for Tom Walker he exchange it for money; as for the third-person omniscient shows how people felt towards moneylenders throughout the story, this is how we can infer about cultural attitudes about the people. Washington Irving’s story relates to the Faustian archetype because Tom Walker similar to Faust, the character Faust in the German
Journal 03: America Tony Hoagland’s poem “America” uses specific nouns and metaphors to tell readers that America is too obsessed with material objects and self-satisfaction. Hoagland uses these nouns and metaphors to hide truth from the naked eye, specific diction is also used in combination with these metaphors to expose corruption in American society. In the opening lines, Hoagland writes, “Then one of the students with blue hair and a tongue stud / Says that America is for him a maximum-security prison / Whose walls are made of Radio Shacks, Burger Kings, and MTV episodes.” Hoagland almost lists the details of American trends by mentioning hair color and piercings, and by describing businesses like Radio Shack which sell 70-inch flat screen televisions, which are completely unnecessary, and fast food restaurants like McDonald’s that give super-sized food portions. These allow readers to immediately see the ridiculous
The Scarlet Letter In a time where evil was believed to lurk amongst the puritan colonies, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Author of “The Scarlet Letter” discusses religious mind sets and prosecutions of the convicted sinners. The depth and complexities discussed in this historical fiction fulfills William Faulkner’s definition of a writer’s purpose. The writer has a responsibility which through Hester he shows the intensity of her experiences that she endeavored. William Faulkner delivered a classic speech upon receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature. Faulkner’s perspective on a writer’s responsibility should portray “love and honor and pity and pride and sacrifice”.
The Devil’s Advocate includes a deal with the Devil, just as other variations of the Faust legends do, but it also presents it in a contemporary and subtle way, slowly drawing the audience into the pact Kevin has made with Satan throughout his various opportunities to resist fame and fortune for the sake of the moral high ground. The Devil’s Advocate places the temptation of the Devil into a more sophisticated atmosphere than other Faustian legends have. The temptation and eventual bargain with the Devil is the recurring theme throughout the film, yet is not always apparent. Instead of there being a direct, decided bargain between the protagonist and the Devil, like there is in Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and Goethe’s Faust, Kevin never knowingly takes part in an organized wager. Instead, Kevin’s numerous temptations with the Devil and his refusal to resist these temptations solidifies his willingness to put his pride, ego and career above all else.
Powerful Alliteration: Uses of Sound, Rhythm, and Image to Convey Sensory Detail in an Abbreviated Version of Robert Southey’s “The Cataract of Ladore” Robert Southey was a young,late-18th, early-19th century, idealist who questioned the ethics of the church and Christianity. While at Oxford studying for the ministry, he wrote a revolutionary paper condemning corporal punishment. Oxford officials found his article to be proof that in “the world that forces of anarchy and irreligion [have] secured a foothold ”(“Robert”). Southey was ultimately expelled but this did not stop his pursuit of writing controversial literature. In Southey’s poem “The Cataract of Ladore”, he fuses a forceful and anarchic perspective of the prodigious Ladore River in Great Brittan with a rhyming poem for children.