A few miles from Boston, in Massachusetts, there is a deep inlet winding several miles into the interior of the country from Charles Bay, and terminating in a thickly wooded swamp, or morass. On one side of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove; on the opposite side the land rises abruptly from the water's edge, into a high ridge on which grow a few scattered oaks of great age and immense size. Under one of these gigantic trees, according to old stories, there was a great amount of treasure buried by Kidd the pirate. The inlet allowed a facility to bring the money in a boat secretly and at night to the very foot of the hill. The elevation of the place permitted a good look out to be kept that no one was at hand, while the remarkable trees formed good landmarks by which the place might easily be found again.…
In “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, Tom is offered a deal to sell his soul and cheat people for money from the devil. Irving described Tom Walker as a very greedy, hypocritical, and conceited character.…
11. In “The Devil and Tom Walker,” what feeling about the setting does Irving want to arouse?…
When a character sells their soul to Satan in a narrative, it is often for receiving something that is usually unachievable, for example, riches, reviving of loved ones, or some other objective of value. But in the end, the soul is usually sent to eternal torment, leaving a lot of troubled people in the wake of destruction behind the damned soul. In Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker”, Tom Walker sells his soul to “Old Scratch” (the Devil) as a means of receiving Pirate Kidd’s lost treasure that will fulfill his greedy lust of money. He is so consumed with greed that not only does he refuse to share basic sustenance with his wife earlier in the story, and he also volunteers to more than the devil asks of him.…
"The Devil and Tom Walker" is a short story by Washington Irving that many wonder about. It teaches a lesson and has many archetypes in the characters. An older greedy, self/centered guy whose wife is just as evil and sneaky as him. Some ask how could you live with a person like this in your life, some may ask how could you and your wife live with each other? I believe that is a great question and would love to give my analyst on these characters and tell you how they almost sold their soul to the devil or what some may call him “old scratch”.…
Irving, a nonreligious man, wrote this fictitious story that causes its audience to really consider their lives and to question what is possible in the future. His anti-Puritanical writings, while frowned upon by many, led to a new period of American Romanticism and inspired many new authors, such as Edgar Allen Poe, to follow in his footsteps. Without discussion, "The Devil and Tom Walker" is one of the many short stories that follows a Romantic style, and it clearly exhibited the huge shift in style that America went through in the 19th…
In Inferno Dante makes fantastic use of details and imagery, explaining his trip from circle to circle lower and deeper into the pits of hell that lead him to purgatory. Dante created this work to represent the journey from the soul to God in the afterlife. This piece was very well accepted in the sense that even though no original copy in Dante’s writing survived, hundreds of copies had already been found of it. Dante used representation of the Medieval view on the afterlife as it had developed in the Western church to write his epic. Although it is said that the original copy of The Divine Comedy was lost to time, you can purchase the paperback copies of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso at Amazon.com for $15.08. I originally chose to focus…
In the “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Irving illustrate human corruption through the use of the woods as setting and symbolism. Tom, Tom’s wife, and the Old Scratch also shown human abilities throughout the story. Each character was different in its own way, but shared one trait to express human abilities.…
The Devil has been the subject of many stories, always represented as an evil being, a cursed creature that preys on the souls of humans. He is described in many different ways, just like the many forms he takes in many stories. Two famous stories that deal with this fearsome creature are "The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving, and "The Man in the Black Suit" by Stephen King. Both suggest that the Devil always pursue the human weaknesses, however, Irving implies that the Devil only hunts the corrupted heart; while King signifies the Devil also take interest in innocents.…
In Washington Irving's short story "The Devil and Tom Walker", the author depicts the main character as a very stereotypical character with little individuality. Tom's actions are easily predicted and his eventual downfall is used to illustrate the story's moral.…
Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker”, shows us that greed and hypocrisy will only haunt you in the end. The story takes place in New England in the late 1700’s. The narrator tells a story about a man’s encounter with the devil or “Old Scratch”. While most people don’t believe the wild story, the narrator swears that the story is indeed true.…
Washington Irving has taken a German story passed down from generation to generation, and brought it to American soil by placing its setting during the late 1700's in New England. "The devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving contains many unrealistic events, stereotypes, and a few lessons and truths about life.…
In “The Devil and Tom Walker,” author Washington Irving emphasizes the moral consequences of indulgence in pecuniary materialism by revealing the detrimental effects of Tom Walker’s avarice.…
One of the main elements of Romanticism that it used throughout the story, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” that was wrote by Washington Irving is the archetypal plot, which is someone who sells his or her own soul to the devil for money, wisdom, power, and fame. The character that really shows this element is Tom Walker because he will do anything to be rich. This element that Tom shows in the story is going against our Christian beliefs and he is turning himself further away from God. Christians believe that the love of money leads to all sorts of sin and evil. Once someone becomes obsessed with money, that is all that they are worried about and they push God away from themselves and they do not make time for Him. Since Tom loves having money,…
A moving inspirational novel told in letters to portray how life was for African Americans, and especially women is The Color Purple. It is not about purple in no way at all; it is actually a difficult book to tackle, dealing with rape insest, explicit sex, sexism, and violence toward women and a lesbian relationship. Not only does it speak of women, but it tells of how there was a negative depiction of African American men during this time.…