A Comparison and Contrast of Spangler and Young Goodman Brown.
Both good and evil exist in mankind. For the most part, humans are good-natured, but unfortunately, evil occasionally bares its ugly face. For a young person, experiencing something so awful for the first time can be confusing or traumatizing. Two stories that illustrate a young man coping with the idea of evil existing within mankind are Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Child by Tiger" by Thomas Wolfe. The protagonists of each story, Young Goodman Brown and Spangler, confront evil first hand, but deal with it in different ways. Both are seemingly innocent young men who witness the dark side for the first time, and therefore, their lives are changed. While Brown lets the evil itself take over his faith and beliefs, Spangler comes to an understanding that human beings can be both good and evil.
Young Goodman Brown is a young Christian man, newlywed to his bride Faith. He is setting out on a journey into the deep forests of Salem, Massachusetts. His intention is to meet with the devil, confirm his existence, and return home to his "Faith" and still possess good Christian morals. When Brown finally meets the devil, he notices everyone, including his wife, family, and churchmen, are all corrupted by the devil himself. Whether or not Brown's journey into the woods was a dream, it had a significant psychological impact. He is now distrustful and views everyone as evil. Brown was once a young man with his whole life in front of him, but let evil change everything he ever knew or was taught. Now a dark, miserable old man with his life behind him, he cannot overcome the horrible sight he saw in the woods that night and loses all faith in God and people. .
Spangler also sees evil for the first time. He witnesses Dick Prosser's murderous acts of rage. Also, Spangler sees the usually good people of his town turn into evil, blood-thirsty savages.