An Angry God's Sinners

The text’s Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, by Jonathan Edwards, and The Minister’s Black Veil, by Nathaniel Hawthorne both have pretty similar subjects. Both texts talk about preachers and sins, and how sinning is bad, and you can’t try to cover up your sins, it will just bring you down. The theme in both texts are pretty similar. One theme in The Minister’s Black Veil is that you can’t try to cover up your sins, it will just bring you down. In lines 39-40 of the text it says, “With this gloomy shade before him, good Mr. Hooper walked at a slow pace, stooping somewhat and looking at the ground, as is customary with abstracted men, yet nodding kindly to those of his parishioners who still waited on the meetinghouse steps.” This quote from The Minister’s Black Veil shows that it brought Mr. Hooper down while he wore the veil, the reason he wore the veil was to try to cover his sins. A theme that is in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is that if you don’t repent for your
sins you will go to hell. In lines 47-51 of this text it says, “The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given.” This is saying that if you try to hide your sins and try to hide them from God then he will be angry. Both of these themes are basically talking about sin and that if you do it a lot and try to cover it up, it will end badly for you. There are also a few differences in the two themes.
One text is talking about covering up your sins and the other is talking about going to hell if you sin. It says in the text Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, “The devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold of them, and swallow them up.” This quote is saying that if you sin you will go to hell, while the other text is saying if you try to cover up your sins things will end badly. In the text Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Edwards uses a real sermon that he wrote a long time ago. He uses a very angry and scary approach to get his point across. He basically scares the reader by saying that if you’ve ever sinned you will go straight to hell. In the text The Minister’s Black Veil, Hawthorne writes a fictional text about covering up your sins and it will end bad if you do. He’s very soft and easy going in his tone, he uses a sad approach to get to the
reader. Out of both texts and authors, Edward’s style was more at getting the point across. This is because Edward’s used a real sermon to get his point across, this is why his style was more effective. He also used a more angry and scary tone to get his point across. Although Hawthorne’s style was good too, he didn’t get the point across like Edward’s did. Some people may argue over whose style was more effective, but Hawthorne’s just didn’t get to the reader as good as Edward’s did. Edward’s style was more effective than Hawthorne’s by a long shot. He used a real sermon that he preached, he had a very angry and scary tone, he put the reader in a scared mood. He got the point across that if you don’t repent for your sins, you will go to hell.