A World Full of Evil
By
Eric Sissom
Introduction to Literature 1: Fiction
April 13, 2007
There are a lot of similarities in relation to evil in the stories: “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor. We live in a world with evil and sin. Some of us commit sins and some of us are victims of sins. Both stories reflect on the belief of avoiding or trying to avoid seeing evil or becoming victims of evil.
In Hawthorne’s story, a minister, Mr. Hooper, is wearing his black veil over his face and refuses to remove it. Hawthorne’s writes, “Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil” (6). He refuses to show his face because he’s sick and tried of the evil and sin that goes on in the world. He did not want to see sinners, which is why he preferred hiding his face wherever he went, if it was in public or in his church. No one ever saw his face, even after he died.
In O’Connor’s story, a family is having a disagreement on where to go on vacation. The father wants to do to Florida, but the grandmother would rather go to east Tennessee. The grandmother wants to stay away from Florida because there is a serial killer on the loose around that area. While the father, Bailey, is sitting at the table reading the newspaper, the grandmother points out, “’Now look here, Bailey,’ she said, ‘see here, read this,’ . . . ‘Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people” (1). The father did not take her seriously, so she spoke to the mother and children. The children didn’t take her seriously, so she gave in and decided to go to Florida.
In Hawthorne’s story, parishioners at Mr. Hooper’s church did not understand why he was wearing his black veil over his face. One woman said, “’I don’t like it,’ . . . ‘He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face’” (8). There are two theories why the minister is hiding his face. One is that he prefers not to see sinners, assuming everybody is a sinner. Another is that he is a sinner himself and does not want to see Christians. The minister may be an evil man himself.
In O’Connor’s story, the family stopped at a place to eat. The owner, Red Sammy, started complaining about customers saying, “’You can’t win’ . . . ‘You can’t win’ . . . ‘These days you don’t know who to trust’” (34). The grandmother responded, “’People are certainly not nice like they used to be’” (35). We live in a different generation and life is a lot different now than 50 years ago. It is harder to tell what someone else is thinking or if they have bad intentions. People are dishonest. Red Sammy’s wife said, “’It isn’t a soul in this green world of God’s that you can trust’” (39). Anybody can become evil and do the unthinkable. When the grandmother asked if they heard of “The Misfit” (40), the woman said, “’I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he didn’t attack this place right here’” (41). Sometimes bad things happen when they are least expected. Red Sammy is thinking and says, “’Everything is getting terrible. I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlocked. Not no more’” (43). Now people have to lock their doors and windows because of the bad people who commit their evil crimes, including murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, etc.
In Hawthorne’s story, the minister gave an interesting sermon while wearing his black veil over his face. Hawthorne writes, “It was tinged, rather more darkly than usual, with the gentle of Mr. Hooper’s temperament. The subject has reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them” (12). Those were emotional words for the congregation, and gave everybody second thoughts about sin.
In O’Connor’s story, the grandmother recalls an old house she visited a long time ago. After Bailey resisted taking time to see the house, the children talked him into it. On there way to the house, they ran off the road and had an accident. At that time, they did not realize they were about to be in danger. A car that was driving by stopped, and a man with two boys got out and went to assist them, but they had guns. The grandmother remembered the man from his picture in the newspaper and said, “’You’re The Misfit’ … ‘I recognized you at once!’” (82). He acknowledged, “’Yes’m,’ . . . ‘but it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn’t of reckernized me’” (83). After talking for a few minutes, he instructs the boys to take Bailey and his son into the woods to be killed. When the boys returned, they took Bailey’s wife and her daughter into the woods to be killed. The grandmother cried out and pleaded with him, but he shot her anyway. Before she was killed, she realized, “’Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’” (136). She obviously had another son that turned out to be a serial killer.
There is evil in all parts of the world. Both stories reflect the thoughts of sin. In today’s world, there is the possibly the next door neighbor, a friend, or a family member could be or become a serial killer or committed other serious sins. People never know or never expect these potential life and death situations.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Michael Meyer, eds. 319-327.
Meyer, Michael, eds. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. 7th ed. University of Connecticut: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2006.
O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” Michael Meyer, eds. 351-361.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Grade: 85/100 | This essay was written by Eric Sissom, e-mail: essay@ericsissom.com
Homepage | About Me | College Papers