Smith 1
Mrs. Gordon 5
Honors English 10
2 October, 2014
Undeniable Self Doubt in First American Literature Stories
In the stories "Sinners in the hands of an angry god", "The devil and Tom Walker", "Young Goodman Brown", and "Bartleby the scrivener" the main characters are all faced with undeniable self doubt that influences their decisions and experiences.
Jonathan Edwards gave the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" to not only inflict self doubt onto the audience but also to illustrate the self doubt and loss of faith that Edwards experienced. Jonathan Edward describes that "Almost every natural man that hears hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it."(Edwards 3) Edwards himself is categorized as a natural man and felt that he would be able to escape the devil. However he soon realizes that. "he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done.
Herman Melville, American author. Reproduction of ...
The Devil and Tom Walker (1856)
English: Title page for Mosses from an Old Manse b...He does not intend to come to that place of torment" (Edwards 3) Jonathan Edwards strong religious views allow him to be inclined to think that natural men "deserve the fiery pit" and that he himself has sinned and therefore without the help of god he believes that he should "suffer it to all eternity" (Edwards 4). The feelings of self doubt that are illustrated clearly depict how Jonathan Edwards felt about his own choices and the choices of others.
"Sinners in the Hands of Angry God" relates to "The Devil and Tom Walker" because Tom Walker represents a man that has also strayed from his faith and his beliefs as a result of his self doubt. Walker was a man that tried to take the easy way out of every situation. He even wound up meeting the devil after taking a shortcut through...