The Devil And Tom Walker Greed

Intuition represents acting without reasoning; instinct over reason. Greed is defined as an intense and selfish desire for something, this desire could make individuals make choices without thinking of the consequences. In The Devil and Tom Walker Tom and his wife make a lot of choices affected by greed without thinking of what could happen to them. Tom sold his soul to the devil just to get the pirates treasure. Suppose he wasn’t greedy and he didn’t make the deal with the devil, he would’ve been fine. Tom’s wife went to the devil and decided to make the deal herself without even thinking of how that could affect her life, especially her marriage. Suppose she didn’t go, she wouldn’t have got killed. This excessive desire destroyed the couple’s life. It got

both of them killed, and it destroyed their relationship. Greed not only affected their choices but it affected their personalities too. There was not trust between them and even though they were married but they hated each other. When the wife died Tom was happy and he felt some gratitude toward the devil. At some point of the story the author says “he was not prone to let his wife into his confidence” (Irving, Washington), this shows how fragile their relationship was, they couldn’t trust each other with their secrets.
Idealism is the idea of making the world a better place.

The Devil and Tom Walker aims to show how greed makes people willing to do anything to gain wealth. Irving wants the readers to learn from Tom Walker’s mistakes, he says “let all gripping money-brokers lay this story to heart” (Irving, Washington). He wants the readers to think of Tom and what happened to him. He tries to warn the readers from greed in the ending of the story, in the end Tom and all of his money was gone, nothing was left but his ghost haunting his house. Which shows how great evil occurs as result of people's greed. Irving illustrates to the readers the consequences of man's desire for material wealth. He shows that Money is the number one goal for most people in society. And he tries to show that integrity is more important than money. “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction”, this shows how greed affects people and put evil into their minds. In the ending Irving promotes contentment, he wants the readers to be content with what they have. He wants people to think of Tom Walker and how he ended up, to learn from his mistakes and avoid

greed.