A large quantity of short stories can be compared despite their many differences. In every short story an author writes their own tale using his or her own vision. The differences in each short story can be obvious because the authors have their own vision of a great short story, but sometimes the short stories can have protagonists with similar personalities or a similar setting. The story “Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka represent two stories that are very different but have characters with many similarities. The protagonists in both stories are devoted to a cause they believe is essential. Goodman Brown was a devout christian before the dream he had while in the forest. He studied his religion while growing up and everyone close to him are believers in that religion as well, which made him believe it was the only way to live, so he held onto his faith. The main character in A Hunger Artist enjoyed fasting for money especially when it was amazing to the people in the town he was performing in. He hated when the forty days set by his manager was completed because then he would be forced to eat something. The main character’s life would not be worth living to him if he could not abstain from eating.The main characters in both stories went on a journey. In the beginning of Young Goodman Brown the main character tells his wife that he has to leave her in order for him to go off on a journey alone. The hunger artist lived his life as a traveling performer. He never tried to live a different type of life.The protagonists for both stories acted irrational throughout the story. The actions of both main characters can be considered Gothic. Goodman Brown decided on a random night to leave his wife and walk through the forest. Goodman Brown’s wife tried to convince him to stay and even offered to pray with him once he went back inside. He didn’t listen and went on his night journey in the forest. The hunger artist enjoyed fasting in a cage for money. He kept fasting even when his performance wasn’t making any money. The artist wasn’t acting logically at any point in the story because he wouldn’t stop fasting even when he knew it would kill him.In both stories the main character’s belief system traps them. The hunger artist believes that he should keep fasting until he finds the food he likes. He trapped himself with this belief. He couldn’t willingly stop fasting, which caused his manager to make people from the audience drag him out of the cage so he could eat after forty days of fasting. He even performed in a cage. Goodman Brown was trapped in his nightmare. When he finally woke up from his dream he kept seeing everyone in the town including his wife as the people they were in the dream.

              The two stories have many similarities that can be listed, but each story has its differences. The main character in Young Goodman Brown believes in the supernatural however the story A Hunger Artist doesn’t involve anything magical. Goodman Brown had encountered his spiritual advisor in his dream and then saw her disappear after a rod was thrown at her feet. When the dream was over he lived the rest of his life believing what he saw in his dream was real. The hunger artist never focused on anything but fasting. He didn’t have any strange encounters that could be seen as supernatural.A Hunger Artist is the only story out of the two that is an allegory. The author of A Hunger Artist created the story in a way in which the character is used to deliver a message about an issue in real life. The story Young Goodman Brown represents Gothic literature and doesn’t deliver a message at the end of the story.  Goodman Brown loses faith in the forest, but the hunger artist had a belief system that couldn’t be broken. Goodman Brown dreaming his wife and everyone in his town are devil worshipers caused him to be faithless. He didn’t pray and hated hearing people pray when he went back to the town after his night journey. The hunger artist didn’t stop fasting, even when people were bored of his fasting performance he never stopped. The hunger artist joined the circus. He hit rock bottom because people only wanted to see an animal in a cage, but it didn’t stop him from fasting in that cage. He fasted until it killed him.