75 words each
Student 1
In “Young Goodman Brown,” the main character loses his faith and trust in people. His dream/journey convinces him that the Devil is in control of everyone he knows. His visions in the woods lead him to believe the everyone he knew had deep, dark secrets and was touched by sin. It seemed that Brown had a pure faith prior to this event, but the event changed his belief that anyone could resist sin. His early faith appeared to be based upon a simple idea that people were basically good and could overcome evil. His faith was always flawed to a certain point because he did not consider that everyone has faults. This includes his view of his own self being a pious man. His goal of perfection for himself and his neighbors sentenced him to a lonely life where no one could ever be trusted again. The story illustrates an exampel of how knowing too much about others can poison your view of the good in other people.
In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” both Mr. Hooper and the community are to blame for the conflict between them symbolized by the veil. Mr. Hooper does not trust the community enough to explain hte veil or show his face. Th community does not accept Mr. Hooper for being different and continues to gossip behind his back. Both parties are deeply suspcicious of the other and cannot see their own faults. This struggle seems to draw attention to society’s failure to be empathetic toward others. Rarely do we know the things people struggle with and quick judgments lead to anger, hate, discrimination, and mistrust. But as an invididual, Mr. Hooper could have heloped the situation by appealing to the commlnity and explaining his desire to wear the veil. Neither Mr. Hooper nor the community was willing to show any trust of hte other. This created a conflict that could never be solved. Both the reverend and the community were at fault of creatign this confilict.
Student 2
“Young Goodman Brown”
Goodman Brown faith was based on his puritan beliefs that had been taught and exemplified by his community. The ultimate example of his faith was his wife Faith who held to a high standard. Brown hesitantly sought knowledge from the devil. The knowledge he received was that every Puritan he held to higher standard was secretly conspiring with the devil. Brown loses all faith when he discovers his wife on the same journey as he but, tries to get her and himself to reject the devil in the end. Brown wakes up unsure if what he experienced was real. Not only did he not get the knowledge he was seeking leaving more unsure and confused than when he started the journey. This led Brown to go crazy and live an untrusting life as an isolationist. He lost faith in everyone around him. I believe Goodman’s Brown faith was always flawed because it rested in people’s actions. If he felt the action was within the guidelines of his religion it was acceptable in his eyes, no matter how terrible. It only took one possible event outside the realm of acceptable behavior to drive him crazy.
“The Minister’s Black Veil”
I have always been a believer that no one person is so perfect to judge another. With that core belief I believe Mr. Hooper is brave to physically where the black veil as a representation of the figurative veil he is wearing to hide his sins. I believe the people are wrong to judge an isolate Mr. Hooper. It really was known of their concerns if Mr. Hooper committed sin or not. The better response I feel would have been to follow his lead an admit they too have sins that they choose to hide from the public. In my opinion the better option for Mr. Hooper to take as a leader was to publicly admit his sins and encourage those of the congregation to do the same. If everyone admits their sins, the community can learn from one another, forgive, and maybe stop those sins from manifesting again. Each person in the story was not perfect but I believe Mr. Hoopers actions were in good faith. Whereas the congregation set to cast out a man for being different.
