Comparing The Devil And Tom Walker

The Devil and Tom Walker is a story that has been passed down from generation to generation. This story is about a man by the name of Tom Walker, who believes that wealth and worldly possessions are everything. He is married to a woman that beats him, and she could care less about him or his existence. Tom and his wife are cheap, greedy, manipulative people. They will cheat each other out of anything that will benefit themselves. One day, Tom decides to take a shortcut through the woods to get home. He meets a man that offers him a deal that he simply cannot pass up, but before he decides to take the man upon this deal he takes some time to think it through. When he has finally made up his mind that this is what he wants to do, he takes a trip back to the man and agrees to his offer. The offer requires him to do certain things for this man, but nothing that he is not willing to do. So, as Tom continues life without his wife, he lies to people and cheats them out of their money all because of the deal he made with this mysterious man in the woods. As days pass on, Tom begins to worry about what will happen to him in his after life. With this curiosity, he begins to act as if he is a frequent churchgoer. But, in the end, his effort to “get right” with God does not work, and he is taken captive by the Devil.
Tom Walker is portrayed as a very cheap, older man.
He penny-pinches his way through life by not buying valuable goods, and other necessities. An example of Tom being cheap is after he sells his soul to the Devil. After this happens, Tom builds himself a nice house to live in. Although the house was nice and had a good size to it Tom left most of it unfinished and unfurnished due to the fact that he did not want to spend any of his money. (“He built himself, as usual, a vast house, out of ostentation, but left the greater part of it unfinished and unfurnished, out of
parsimony.”)

In the story The Devil and Tom Walker, the main character Tom is greedy. One of the times Tom’s greed is shown in the story is when he finally sells his soul to the Devil and the Devil is explaining to Tom what all he has to do for him. Whenever the Devil tells Tom something he has to do, Tom interrupts to state that he will do even more than what is being asked of him. By him doing this, it indicates that he wants all of the wealth and riches that he can have and even more. (Devil: “You shall open a broker’s shop in Boston next month.” Tom: “I’ll do it tomorrow, if you wish.” Devil: “You shall lend money at two percent a month.” Tom: “Egad, I’ll charge four!” Devil: “You shall extort bonds, foreclose mortgages, drive the merchants to bankruptcy” Tom: “I’ll drive them to the d—l!” Devil: “You are the usurer for my money! When will you want the rhino?” Tom: “This very night.”)

Tom Walker and his wife were manipulative people. They would do this out of parsimony, or greediness. They would even try to manipulate each other at times. Tom would