Comparing Jonathan Edwards And The Minister's Black Veil By Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne are two rather similar pieces of writing, not in style, but in topic. While they are almost completely different in the entirety of it all, they do somewhat hover over some of the same concepts, such as the wickedness and evil that is present in mankind, both on a personal level and on a broad spectrum. Both of these writings have very different themes and writings styles though. Jonathan Edwards takes a more direct approach, as it is actually a sermon that he once delivered to his Puritan church. Nathaniel, however, writes his in the view of a narrative, and that has a completely different effect; in this case, a better one. Nathaniel

This can turn off many readers, especially when taking into account their religious affiliations. This type of attitude was more common when the Puritans were relevant, and that was mostly during the 1700’s. During the time that this sermon was preached, Puritans were one of the dominant denominations of Christianity, but the Puritans tended to have a much more arrogant attitude than the average Christian affiliate. Jonathan Edwards delivers his speech in a second person perspective, highlighting and emphasising the usage of the word “you” in order to make his speech more direct and effective. This approach however, would not and does not work in today’s society. It would be viewed as having the “I am superior” attitude, which is exactly what Edwards attitude was; he made that quite clear during his

While “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” is a word for word account however, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” while being based on a true story, does not retell the original story precisely. In order to make the story more catching to the readers, the author added a few of his own elements. "Of a certainty it is good Mr. Hooper." (page 1) One of the characters is speaking to Mr. Hooper who, in this story, is taking place of the original person’s name, which Joseph “Handkerchief” Moody. “The Minister’s Black Veil” is a parable of a real life account of a young male accidentally killing his best friend. Because of this accident, the man, Joseph, decided to wear a black veil over his face throughout the remainder of his life. This is what earned him the nickname “Handkerchief.” Nathaniel Hawthorne took this misfortunate and created it into an exemplum, not only to entertain readers, but to get a message across to