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The short story "The Devil and Tom Walker," by Washington Irving, reveals the impulses and temptations that affect people in their daily lives. Irving develops and supports his story through exemplification. His purpose was to show what choices or decisions people have to make in their daily lives in order to connect with his audience, to be able to make his story more relatable and enjoyable by the people. In his story, Irving states, "The devil said: In this neighborhood, I am known by the name of the black woodsman. I am he to whom the red men consecrated this spot, and in honor of whom they now and then roasted a white man, by way of sweet-smelling sacrifice," from which we can infer various ethical, social, and cultural influences and
Tom Walker’s devil is a dark-skinned man with red eyes, red sash, and an axe. Tom was a malicious, greedy person who dealt with the devil in order to gain some wealth. He and his wife would fight constantly day after day. Tom was not a wealthy person
A Faustian legend is a story in which a character trades something of great personal value to the devil in order to receive personal gain. Since this type of literature originated in the Fourth Century it has spread throughout the world. Two relatively recent versions of this legend are “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Vincent Benét. These stories show many similarities as well as a few differences. While both Benét and Irving present similar themes in setting of the tales and motivation in the Faustian character, they do differ in the nature of that character and their visual presentation of the Devil.
First i will showcase Washington Irving’s piece with a more noticeable amount of foreshadowing. Even in the title it foreshadows that the devil will be associated with our main character Tom Walker. In the Devil and Tom Walker by Irving “Tom Lifting his eyes beheld a great black man seated directly opposite of him on a stump of a tree exceedingly surprised having neither seen or heard anyone approach”. This foreshadows the man he can see is the devil because he had not seen or heard anyone approach and also he was a great black man.as to ambrose bierce’s writings where it was much more subtle.
Religion often enlightens one with newfound reverence and respect. While caring for the wolf, the man finds both reverence and respect through a few spiritual encounters. As he is walking with the wolf, the man hears coyotes calling from the hills “above him where their cries [seem] to have no origin other than the night itself.” This represents the heavens calling out to the wolf to enter its gates. Once the man stops to build a fire, he seems to hold a ritual for the wolf. His shelter steamed “in the firelight like a burning scrim standing in a wilderness where celebrants of some sacred
Can you imagine yourself locked up in a room with no doors? Similar to a room with no doors, there is no way out of hell if it was one's destiny. In the short story "The Devil & Tom Walker" by Washington Irving, the main character's fate is hell because of his wrong decisions in life, accepting a deal with the devil for earthly benefits. Irving reinforces his message about not making decisions that may damn your soul with the use of literary elements and figurative language. Wisely, Irving combines characterization, mood and point of view to perpetuate the theme of the story in the reader's mind.
Written during the American Romanticism period, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” by William Irving, personifies the belief in the primacy of imagination. The period of Romanticism in America is often seen as the crucial period of American culture, as it was the central movement of the Renaissance period that moved into a more free-feeling and artistic approach to literature. American Gothic literature made its early appearance with William Irving, first with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in 1820, and carrying over to “The Devil and Tom Walker” in 1824, both of which use a macabre approach to establish a moral ending (Matterson). Told by a narrator known as Geoffrey Crayon, “The Devil and Tom Walker” takes on the tone of a legend or tall tale as the story describes the life of a greedy money lender by the name of Tom Walker, who sells his soul to the devil to gain wealth. Irving ultimately uses literary elements such as symbolism and character development, as well as themes such as greed and hypocrisy to establish a moral to the corrupt man’s tale.
The Legend of the Jersey Devil is the most prominent legend that is told to citizens of New Jersey; it is mainly told to elementary school aged children. There are a variety of settings that the story has; however, the most common location that is used when retelling the tale is Leeds Point, NJ, which is in the Pine Barrens region of the state. This tale of the Jersey Devil recounts the existence of a supernatural creature that is said to have terrorized the New Jersey Pine Barrens and surrounding areas for the last 260 years. The teller of this version of the legend is a Caucasian female who is eighteen years of age and attends the University of Maryland. She comes from a middle class family and believes in the Christian faith. As a New Jersey native, this young woman was originally told this story when she was a child in school. She admits that as a child, she believed the tale as true; however, at this age, she no longer believes in the existence of the New Jersey Devil. While on the way to class, we discussed New Jersey’s most famous legend, and she was able to recount the tale:
During the American Renaissance, writers were put into one of two categories. The categories were the Dark Romantics and the Transcendentalists. Some Dark Romantics include Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving. The Dark Romantics stories included creepy symbols, horrific themes, and psychological effects of guilt and sin. The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving gives a few examples as to why life is meaningless to some people.Humans are not all good, there are some cruel people in this world. The Pit and the Pendulum tells you exactly why.
In the story “Where are you Going, Where Have you been?” Joyce Carol Oates tells us about a fifteen year old girl named Connie. Connie is confronted by a young man who is trying to persuade her to take a ride with him. He introduces himself as Arnold Friend and kindly asks her to come with him but she refused. He then threatens Connie and her family. She is then forced outside and leaves with Arnold Friend. Arnold Friend clearly symbolizes the devil through his physical traits, his knowledge of Connie, and his power over her kind of like he was hypnotizing her to go with him.
We see that good vs. evil has been a theme that is ubiquitous in many writings. The story "The Devil and Tom Walker" is a story about a man who lives an immoral life of greed. Walker lives in a wooded area, where it is solemn, and quiet area of New England. Walker runs into the devil and sees that the devil is cutting down someone else's timber.
Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” includes great examples of Romanticism, such as symbols in nature having links to the supernatural, the importance of the inner nature, and the emphasis of the individual. In the story, Tom Walker is a selfish man who cares more about money than he does about anyone else, including his wife. One day, while he is walking through the woods, Tom Walker comes across the Devil, who makes a deal with him to exchange his soul for the treasure that is buried in those woods. Tom declines and returns back to his wife and tells her that he has passed on an opportunity that could bring them lots of money. Tom’s wife, outraged by his actions, decides to strike a deal of her own with the Devil and after several attempts, she never returns from the woods. The next time Tom goes to the woods he finds that his wife had been killed by the Devil. He finally agrees to make the deal with him, now that Tom doesn’t have to share anything with his wife. Tom ignores the Devil’s suggestion of becoming a slave-trader and becomes a moneylender instead. He gets wea...
In the short story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates, the use of the symbolism of Connie’s clothes, her fascination with her beauty, Arnold Friend’s car and Arnold Friend himself help to understand the story’s theme of evil and manipulation. The story, peppered with underlying tones of evil, finds Oates writing about 15-year-old Connie, the protagonist of the story, a pretty girl who is a little too into her own attractiveness, which eventually gets her into trouble with a man named Arnold Friend. The story is liberally doused with symbolism, from the way Connie dresses to the shoes on Arnold Friend’s feet. In “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” the reader can pick up on some of the symbols very easily, while others need deeper thought. The subtle hints of symbolism throughout the story create a riveting tale that draws the reader in. Connie finally succumbs to Arnold Friend at the end of the story, it then becomes obvious that he represents the devil and the symbolism of her clothing and Arnold’s car all tie together to create a better understanding of the story.
Goodman Brown in the short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne goes on a journey into the woods to meet a stranger which ultimately changes his life. His blind faith in his religion makes him believe that all people are good. Goodman Brown is a trusting, naive man in the beginning if the story but witnesses a witch ceremony that changes his personality drastically. Seeing his family and his neighbors taking part in the sinful act changes his outlook on life and his outlook on their personalities as well. Brown’s blind faith in people and his naivety make the shock of what he sees in the woods turn him into an untrusting, paranoid man.
In the story, The Adventure Of The German Student by Washington Irving, the author makes the story interesting by leaving hints and clues to the readers about the beautiful girl whom Wolfgang has fallen for. In the beginning of the story, the student was haunted by devils so his family and friends suggested that he moved to Paris and so he did. For instance, “He became haggard and desponding. His friends discovered the mental malady preying upon him, and determined that the best cure was a change of scene” (Irving 1). His friends clearly knew that he was taken over by the devil and that his imaginations became very mad. His friends thought this was the best cure for him. However, as the student moved to France, the devil was still following
The believed that the devil would come to people and force them to defy God. This idea lead to hysteria that came with the outbreak of witch trials. Fear of the devil helped to create not just the events in towns, but also the writing style of this time period. “O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God” (Edwards 103). Edwards is describing how God holds sinners over the fire pit of hell. He is using description and the reader’s fear of the devil to persuade his readers to no longer sin and ask her God’s forgiveness. Many writers from this time period used this technique in their writing so they could hopefully eliminate sinning. Eventually this writing style caught on, making persuasion based on fear of the devil, one of the main writing