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The devil and tom walker literary devices
The devil and tom walker literary devices
Essay on American romanticism
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In the nineteenth century, America had recently become a free nation, but had not yet established its own writing style. Romantics and Transcendentalists created American Romanticism, based on imagination, feeling, individualism and nature. Of the Romantic Writers, Washington Irving was one of the most well known and created several Romantic stories such as The Devil and Tom Walker. The Devil and Tom Walker exemplifies several characteristics of American Romanticism, such as: the setting, the supernatural, and emotion rather than reason.
The setting, a key part in American Romanticism, is often described with vivid detail and creates certain feelings. In The Devil and Tom Walker, the setting is first described in the first couple of sentence and creates a mysterious and gloomy feel. In the first sentence, the setting is mysterious and gloomy as described by Irving in the excerpt, “Terminating in a thickly wooded swamp or morass” (290). In addition, sentence two, implements details that give the land a feel of action as stated, “On the opposite side the land rises abruptly from the water’s edge into a high ridge” (290). Therefore, the mood and feeling of the setting exemplify American Romantic characteristics.
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Supernatural figures and ideas, a part of American Romanticism are consistently present throughout the story.
The story is based on the fact that Tom Walker meets The Devil as stated, “Tom lifted up his eyes, and beheld a great black man seated directly opposite him” (292), he then proceeds to make a deal with The Devil, which results in Tom becoming greedy. In addition, the presence of the hidden treasure that Tom makes a deal with The Devil for, is supernatural since it relates to The Devil. It is mentioned in the third sentence as stated, “Under one of these gigantic trees, according to old stories, there was a great amount of treasure buried by Kidd the pirate” (290). Both of which these supernatural figures and ideas are characteristics of American
Romanticism. Another key element of American Romanticism is emotion over reason, which is constant throughout the story. When Tom first meets The Devil, they discuss the treasure, at first Tom is unsure of whether to make the deal with The Devil as stated, “They must have been very hard, for he required time to think of them, and he was not a man to stick at trifles when money was in view” (294). When he tells his wife of this, she immediately goes searching for The Devil, but does not return. His emotion is present when he goes searching for her and discovers her remains. Fueled by greed Tom makes the deal with The Devil without any reasoning as stated, “ By degrees, however, Tom brought him to business, and they began to haggle about the terms on which the former was to have the pirate’s treasure” (296). These examples show that emotion was present rather than reason. The Devil and Tom Walker exemplifies several characteristics of American Romanticism, such as: the setting, the supernatural and emotion rather than reason. The three characteristics stated prove that The Devil and Tom Walker exemplifies American Romanticism. With these examples, Irving was able to create a successful American Romantic that became one of his most famous Romantic stories.
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
In “The Devil and Tom Walker,” written by Washington Irving’s, Tom Walker gives his soul to the devil for greediest. For example, in the story, it was said, “He accumulated bonds and mortgages, gradually squeezed his customers closer and closer and sent them at length, dry as a sponge, from his door.” This shows how greedy and selfish he was for not caring about what anyone else feels,
Washington Irving displays a sense of humor throughout “The Devil and Tom Walker” about greed, marriage and religion to help the reader, become a better person. Tom Walker makes a Faustian Bargain, also known as a deal with the devil. Tom has a lot of problems with his abusive wife, his desire for riches and getting into the afterlife. Washington Irving tells us the story of Tom Walker in a humorous way. Irving does this to display a message to his readers.
The Romantic Period in American literature seems to be anything but romantic. That is, unless you love death and the devil. Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Washington Irving wrote short stories about the devil and dying during this time. These writers do write about them in slightly different ways. Edgar Allen Poe's famous short story, "The Pit and the Pendulum," is about a man and "the dread sentence of death." As he is before the judges, the "thought of what sweet rest there must be in the grave" comes to his mind. The man passes out and then wakes up in a dungeon. He tries to figure out how large the dungeon is and finally gets brave enough to try to go across the room, but in the middle of the dungeon, he finds a well. At the well,
Both “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” are exemplary specimens of Faustian myths, and as such have very many similarities and concurrences. But, they also emphasize different aspects of the characters and their respective personalities. These two commendable stories serve as excellent chronicles of literature and as worthy examples of moral lessons for all ages.
The Devil is explaining to Tom who he is and he also describes himself. The Devil is often described as a man is disguises and here it is the same way. He describes himself as a woodsman, a black miner and a huntsman and all of these disguises can be related to dark and scary people, which is exactly what the devil is. “The devil” said he guards, Captain Kidd’s treasure, he said he guards all treasure. “The devil presided at the hiding of Captain Kidd’s money, and took it under his guardianship; but this, it is well known, he always does with buried treasure, particularly when it has been ill-gotten”. (Irving). He claims to own the swamp near Tom Walker and his wife’s home, where Tom met him during his first encounter where they were surrounded by trees with carved names of the living but soon to die and be fuel for hell’s fire. Old Scratch is the devil who knows when he’s got people right where he wants them, and tries to offer the deal of a lifetime. After Toms encounter with the devil he went to tell his wife about the
"About the year 1727, just at the time when earthquakes were prevalent in New England, and shook many tall sinners down upon their knees, there lived near this place a meager miserly fellow of the name of Tom Walker." (Irving) “The Devil and Tom Walker” is a short story written by Washington Irving in about 1824. The story is about a man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for Pirate Kidd’s hidden treasure. The man, named Tom Walker, is a greedy, selfish man who thinks money is more important than his wife. “The Devil and Tom Walker” is the best short story example of Romanticism. The story uses escapism, nature as a form of spirituality, and imagination, which are all tenets of Romanticism.
In Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” Tom Walker was convinced by the devil to make a deal to sell his soul to him. “The Black Man told him of great sums of money which had been buried by Kidd the Pirate, under the oak trees on the ridge not far from the morass.” That quote from Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker,” explains why Tom was interested in selling his soul to
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...
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.
In Washington Irving’s short story, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Tom revolves his life around his own selfish wants. Tom and his wife were not a right match for each other. The trouble in their relationship is they would seek out the others stash of treasures to take as their own. In their mind they cannot be happy with what they already have, but imbedded in each other is the need for more. Greed overshadows Tom’s inner conscience, and he goes to great lengths to satisfy his wants. On one ordinary day Tom decides to take a shortcut home, “Like most shortcuts, it was an ill chosen route. The swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high, which made it dark at noonday… (Irving 4).” Any typical human being would have enough common sense not to take a route through a dark, frightening swap. While resting in the swap, Tom met a strange “black man.” Tom’s wife fell into the trap many do, the idea of wealth caused her to fall into the hands of the devil. With his wife gone, he made a deal with the devil to open up a broker’s shop in order to ob...
Writers have a way to make society take a double look at themselves and what is going on in life or even in nature is compared. It’s actually called satire it’s the use of humor, irony, it criticizes people’s stupidity or vices. “The Devil and Tom Walker” is written by Washington Irving. In his story, he uses satire to criticize the people and the actions they have taken among themselves in the 1720’s that lived in Boston.
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.
Irving, Washington. “The Devil and Tom Walker”. Elements of Literature: Fifth Course. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2008. 175-185. Print.