the devil and tom walker

In “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, the reader experiences many different settings to help support Characterization! The author painted a clear picture in the reader’s head that portrayed sounds, physical sensations, and sometimes tastes and smells, that helps the reader figure out what was happening currently in the story. The imagery in this short story affects the characters and the way they act, also the mood of the reader as they read the story.
An example of the imagery that Irving uses to figure out Tom Walker's character is provided in the beginning of the story, as the reader is introduced to Tom Walker and his wife, and the environment they live in. The author makes it clear from the illustration of Tom's marriage that what defines him above everything is materialism, as the description of how he and his wife hide everything from each other and try to keep it for themselves demonstrates. Although the image that is given off the house and the surroundings only defines the characters even more. Saying the houses features only corresponded to the characters actions, such as
They lived in a sorrowful looking house that was isolated from everything else. The trees are themselves identified as "emblems of sterility," which is symbolic of the kind of life Tom and his wife enjoy, and even the house is said to be "forlorn" and to have "an air of starvation." Note how hyperbole is employed in the description of the horse, whose "ribs were as articulate as the bars of a gridiron." The simile here conveys just how little it is fed. Clearly any man who would keep their horse in such a condition is incredibly cruel because the horse is obviously starving and very poorly treated by Tom. These images therefore reinforce Tom's central character flaw, which is greed.