Religious Fanaticism: A comparison between Adolf Hitler and Reverend Harry Powell from The Night of

Adolf Hitler, the man responsible for the largest jew extermination that has ever happened in history, used his charisma to convince the German citizens that his ideas were the only ones that needed to be followed. Reverend Harry Powell, the main carachter of the novel The Night of The Hunter, used as well as Hitler his religious beliefs to justify his actions as a serial killer. Once again, we can see a similarity between the two of them because the reverend used his charm to gain people´s trust so that they would not be suspicious of him. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the similarities between these two men and how they used religious fanaticism to justify murder.

Religious fanaticism has existed ever since the romans. It is defined as an obsessive enthusiasm to one´s own religion, and basically, they do certain types of things with the beleif that they are doing it to follow their God´s orders. These fanatics feel the necessity of engaging in acts that demonstrate their faith and these behaviours may go from simple things like going to church every sunday, to commiting attrocities against human beings. The best example we can relate to in our modern days are the members of ISIS. These people use sacred texts as a sort of insipiration to commit terrorist attacks, they think they are serving to God.

But now what has all of this to do with Adolf Hitler and the character Harry Powell? Well, if we analize them very carefully, we can see that they have a lot of things in common. Let´s first talk about Adolf Hitler. People often claim that Hitler practiced Atheism, that he did not believed in God. But contrary to that idea, you may find suprising that he actually believed in something. First of all, he was born as a Christian. He was very devoted as a child, to the point that he even thought about becoming a priest. Somehow, something changed as he grew up. He started doubting of the church and christianity. Who can blame him for that? We all have been there, a place where you are just not so certain about everything the Bible sais. But let´s focous on the main subject, As he entered into politics, he always used to say that he did not believed in Christianity, but then some speeches mentioned God and religion.

It is just a matter of reading what he wrote to find out Hitler's God equals the same God of the Christian Bible. Hitler had many beliefs which not only include God and Providence but also Fate. He justified his fight for the German people and against Jews by using Godly and Biblical reasoning. We can easily see his fanaticism by reading this extract: “Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”

Now it is the turn to analyze Reverend Harry Powell. In the novel TNOTH, he is presented as a preacher that has just being released from jail. He is in the search of 10,000 dollars hidden by his former cell mate Ben Harper with his family. This journey takes him along the Ohio River, where he spreds the Gospel. What is curious about this carachter, is that despite being a preacher, he is also a serial killer. As well as Hitler, Reverend Harry Powell uses God as a way to justify his killngs, he surely beliefs that he is doing God´s work since the Bible is full of killings. Here we can se a quote said by revered Powell in which he tries to justify killings: “Not that You mind the killings, Your book is full of killings”. As the story goes by, we can inferred that Powell truly believes that God speaks to him and he is doing what God tells him to do.

Nowadays, some people like to refer religious fanaticism as some kind of mental illness. It’s often hard to see the line between religious fanaticism and mental illness. Talking to God is considered a sign of religious devotion, but when God talks back, it’s a symptom of schizophrenia, like the case of Harry Powell, where he was sure God talked back to him. I personally believe these people are not sick or anything, they are just confused, and by that I am not defending them. It is clearly that these people did not have coherent ideas. Reverend Harry Powell was sort of a sociopath that relied in religion to sustain that his actions where in the name of God, or Hitler that decided to exterminate Jews just because they were “inferior” to his race. Right now, we are being witnessing problems around the world with moder religious fanatics, ISIS for example. They have the world in fear of them attacking inocent people again just because they believe it is God´s Word to do so. I thinkg fanaticism is just a way of showing how insecure a person is, they have no conscious about who they really are, so they just rely in religion in extreme ways to feel they are being part of something big.