Misfit Vs Brown

The two short stories "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor and "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne both have characters who allow their lives to be altered by the threat and lure of evil. While the Misfit from Flannery O'Connor's short story seems to embrace the concept of and acts associated with evil, Brown from "Young Goodman Brown" seems to reject both evil and those associated with it. Although the Misfit and Brown have very different attitudes and take very different approaches to evil, both men eventually go astray and end up isolated from the society to which they once belonged. From the very beginning of Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," the sheer evil conveyed by the Misfit becomes apparent.
This leads the reader to almost forget about the Misfit as a factor in the narrative. When the family wrecks their car as a result of the grandmother's impaired judgment, the Misfit and his comrades witness the wreck and stop, seemingly to assist them. The Misfit initially comes across as cool and collected, but the family's situation takes an ominous turn when the grandmother recognizes the Misfit as the escaped criminal she read about in the newspaper. In response to the accusation of indeed being the Misfit, he kindly replies "Yes'm" (1312). During the ensuing conversation, the Misfit continues utilizing social niceties, leaving the reader to almost approve of the Misfit in spite of the fact that he has committed some unknown horrendous crime. As the Misfit begins to have his cronies kill the family, he continues a conversation with the grandmother that ultimately leads to a discussion of religion. The Misfit confesses, "I was a gospel singer for a while," which leads the reader to believe that religion was once indeed a factor in his life. His use of past tense, however, along with his failure to pray with the grandmother and his attitude of contempt towards Jesus leads the reader to believe that he no longer utilizes religious principles. The grandmother makes final attempts to reason
Although the exact moment when Brown goes astray could be debated, most would agree that his seemingly contrived encounter with the devil in the forest signals the climax of his moral demise. As he continues his journey into the forest with the devil, he expresses an interest in returning to the familiarity of his Puritan village but ostensibly has no control of his actions as he continues forward. This suggests to the reader that Brown has potentially eliminated the likelihood of salvation as he is under the control of the devil. Brown proceeds to witness an unusual ceremony where he unsuspectingly observes his wife as a participant. At seeing his wife, Brown exclaims to his spiritually tainted wife, "look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one" (1192). At hearing this, the reader is under the impression that salvation is still indeed possible for Brown. In spite of his apparent cohesion with the devil, Brown still recognizes that the defeat of evil via a religious outlet is still indeed possible, and that he embraces this