Greed In Washington Irving's The Devil And Tom Walker

Washington Irving the author of the tale “The Devil and Tom Walker” uses stories from literatures past, to make a compelling tale, The Devil and Tom walker represents the importance of processing morals and the problems associated when virtue fails to exist. He also creates the right tone for the story and gives details throughout the story, so the readers figure out the topic of the story and how it will change their perspective on the temptation of greed. “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.”-Erich Fromm. He describes each character in a way that you can assume who they are, their character, and the decisions that they might make throughout the story. However, he provides a background for each character to understand their choses and their ultimate demise.

Tom walker meets the devil in the swamp, the devil offers him wealth and fortune. He declines the offer because he doesn’t want to share it with his horrible wife. Tom and his wife’s feelings are not loving, one thing they have common is greediness. She goes back to the swamp try to make a deal with the devil, but she never returns, Tom waited a couple days until he went to the forest to look for her. Tom finds her apron in a tree, it had a heart and a kidney in it.
Walker again faces the tempting offer the devil gives him, he takes it with little regard of the consequences. “Not a man to stick at trifles where money was in view.” The quote states how greedy he was, and he doesn’t care for anyone else but himself, he tricks people to for money. Tom rips people off by selling their property for more then he bought it for. Tom was consumed by greed, it affected him in the long term. It slowly changes his character throughout the story and made him miserable the rest of his