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Comparing Masks In Hopfrog And The Devil And Tom Walker

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Comparing Masks In Hopfrog And The Devil And Tom Walker
Everyone around us wears masks to hide who they truly are. For example , politicians wear masks to get the majority of votes to win. Not only in real life but in literature, characters wear masks as shown in "Hopfrog" by Edgar Allen Poe and "The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving. The King and the Seven ministers and Tom walker wear masks in these two stories. Regardless of how hard one tries to conceal his/her darker traits and/or motives, the truth always comes out in the end.
In the story "Hopfrog" the King and the Seven ministers hide behind the mask of royalty. Towards the end of the story, the truth really comes out. The ape costumes show who the King and his seven minister really are. They are beasts, monsters. Secondly , Hopfrog exposes the king to the people and tells them all the bad things he has done. The king has done Horrible things to Hopfrog so her tells the people how cruel and nasty the king and his ministers are. Hopfrog says “They are a great king and his seven privy-councillors,- …show more content…
Toms actions catch up with him when the Devil takes his soul in the end and all his possessions turn to dust/wood chips. This shows that he was hiding the real truth and it came up and got revenge on him. He tried hard to not let the truth out but the devil got him. The narrator says, "On searching his coffers all his bonds and mortgage were found reduced in cinders. In places of gold silver, his iron chest was filled with chips and shavings : two skeletons lay in his stable instead of his half starved horses, and the very next data his house took fire and burnt to the ground" (Poe 322). This quote shows how Tom wore the mask and it finally caught up to him by burning all his fortune an value. Tom carries bibles around to protect him from the Devil and his soul. Tom doesn't want the Devil to take his soul so he wears the mask of religion. Even though he is not trying to be
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