Preview

Similarities Between The Devil And Tom Walker

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
383 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Similarities Between The Devil And Tom Walker
The eighteenth century innovated the way authors wrote, rather than writing in a Classicism style, poets and writers wrote Romantic Literature. Two authors that really set forth with writing short stories and poems in Romantic Literature were Washington Irving and Edgar Allen Poe. Romantic Literature is primarily concerned with nature, the inner world of human nature and the past.
Even though Romantic Literature is concerned with nature, the inner world of human nature and the past, Washington Irving only focused on the past and nature in The Devil and Tom Walker. Irving expresses nature when Tom meets the devil in the forest. He depicts the forest by saying “...a gulf of black, smothering mud; there were also dark and stagnant pools, the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the short story titled The Devil and Tom Walker, the author Washington Irving shows that any dealing for more power can and will be bad for you. Irving show the topics of manipulation, greed, and values. These topics show what Irving was trying to discuss about.…

    • 394 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A few miles from Boston, in Massachusetts, there is a deep inlet winding several miles into the interior of the country from Charles Bay, and terminating in a thickly wooded swamp, or morass. On one side of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove; on the opposite side the land rises abruptly from the water's edge, into a high ridge on which grow a few scattered oaks of great age and immense size. Under one of these gigantic trees, according to old stories, there was a great amount of treasure buried by Kidd the pirate. The inlet allowed a facility to bring the money in a boat secretly and at night to the very foot of the hill. The elevation of the place permitted a good look out to be kept that no one was at hand, while the remarkable trees formed good landmarks by which the place might easily be found again.…

    • 4802 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Selling one’s soul to the devil is an archetypal theme as old as time itself. In the story The Devil and Tom Walker as well as in the movie Snow White and the Huntsman, Tom Walker and Queen Raveena are motivated by greed.…

    • 322 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    11. In “The Devil and Tom Walker,” what feeling about the setting does Irving want to arouse?…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    When a character sells their soul to Satan in a narrative, it is often for receiving something that is usually unachievable, for example, riches, reviving of loved ones, or some other objective of value. But in the end, the soul is usually sent to eternal torment, leaving a lot of troubled people in the wake of destruction behind the damned soul. In Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker”, Tom Walker sells his soul to “Old Scratch” (the Devil) as a means of receiving Pirate Kidd’s lost treasure that will fulfill his greedy lust of money. He is so consumed with greed that not only does he refuse to share basic sustenance with his wife earlier in the story, and he also volunteers to more than the devil asks of him.…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In "The Devil and Tom Walker" Irving uses color imagery to reveal aspects of his characters. An example of this is the devil is described as black, as though covered in soot, and red, like blood (lines 79-88, 319-320, and 329). These colors are associated with the fires of Hell and danger, and they reveal the identity of the strange man and emphasize his…

    • 65 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I believe that the story with the most powerful moral lesson was The Devil and Tom Walker. The tale of Tom Walker teaches the important message of working hard for items that you desire such as money. Washington Irving, the author, uses the Devil to show all of the bad parts of humanity and how they are brought out in Tom Walker. Additionally, this theme is still very important today. Throughout the story, Tom is a very greedy man that tries to take the easy road through life, and this is shown by him taking a shortcut home.…

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the era of the Puritans, a new structure of literacy, American Romanticism, reformed and brought freedom of imagination to two specific writers: Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Even though Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker" and Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" revealed differential aspects of literature, they still employed similarities through mystifying symbols and the exemplary diction it implies. Although they reveal their themes in an opposing matter, both Irving and Hawthorne use a similar rhetorical device to clarify the relation in their meaning of the paths and the significance of the devil.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the short story “The Devil and Tom Walker,” written by Washington Irving, the characteristic of Romanticism that is prominent throughout the story is symbolism. “He thought with regret on the bargain he had made with his black friend (Devil), and set his wits to work to cheat him out of the conditions. He became, therefore, all of a sudden, a violent churchgoer.” (358) Tom Walker didn’t want to spend his time as a usurer for the rest of his life, so he became a forceful and extremist Christian to ward off the Devil. Symbolism is important because it requires the reader to delve into the true meaning of what he/she is reading.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the main elements of Romanticism that it used throughout the story, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” that was wrote by Washington Irving is the archetypal plot, which is someone who sells his or her own soul to the devil for money, wisdom, power, and fame. The character that really shows this element is Tom Walker because he will do anything to be rich. This element that Tom shows in the story is going against our Christian beliefs and he is turning himself further away from God. Christians believe that the love of money leads to all sorts of sin and evil. Once someone becomes obsessed with money, that is all that they are worried about and they push God away from themselves and they do not make time for Him. Since Tom loves having money,…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Devil and Tom Walker

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Devil and Tom Walker finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folklore and also values feeling and intuition over reason. To begin with, Kidd the Pirate is an excellent example. “Under one of these gigantic trees, according to old stories, there was a great amount of treasure buried by Kidd the Pirate. This quote explains the legend of Kidd the Pirate. It is an example of American Romanticism because it finds inspiration in myths, legends and folklore. Second, the Devil recovers the treasure after Kidd the Pirate never returns to claim it. “The old stories add, moreover, that the Devil presided at the hiding of the money, and took it under his guardianship…” The quote goes into further detail about the legend of Kidd the Pirate and also the Devil. It finds beauty and truth in exotic locales, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination. Next, supernatural elements appeal to emotional desires rather than reason. “Tom’s eagerness to the quick and prepared him to agree to anything rather that not gain the promised treasure. It shows that Tom is quick to side with the Devil and is easy to persuade. The quote values feeling and intuition over reason. The Devil and Tom Walker values feeling and intuition over reason and finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folklore.…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Devil and Tom Walker

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The story "The Devil and Tom Walker" is a story about a man who lives an immoral life of greed. Walker lives in a solemn, wooded, quiet area of New England. Walker runs into the devil and sees that the devil is cutting down someone else's timber. The evil is shown, by the devil in how he is premeditating the murder of "Deacon Peabody". Walker contemplates this meeting with the devil, and recognizes that wealth is the first priority for him. Tom Walker's wife was filled with greed and wanted to acquire the gold that the devil had promised. Walker hadn't obliged to his wife, and due to his wife's acute greediness set out on her own journey to acquire that gold. She had been killed because of her greed, and lack of morals for self-prosperity, which resulted in her death. This is an important example of the use of evil within "The Devil and Tom Walker". Walker is told from the devil that he could earn money through usury and extortion. Walker commits to usury and makes a generous sum of money. Walker has no repentance for such a sin and continues to his usury. The evil accumulates in the story as Walker accumulates more and more money, resulting from more and more greed. The accumulation of this money leads to a climactic point where Walker is fed up with his accumulation of money, and asks to be taken by the devil. Consequently, the devil "takes" Walker to hell. The evil is fluently represented by Walker "selling himself to the devil", and his inability to understand that material possessions couldn't be taken to the next world.…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    the devil and tom walker

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages

    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.…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Creative Project

    • 1791 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Romantic literature champions the beauty of the world and the inherent goodness of human beings, and Romantic verse is highly structured and deeply traditional. Modernism frequently defines itself as a reaction against and a rejection of romanticism. Modernist poets viewed Romantic poetry as a remnant of the nineteenth century. Modernists did not think that writing as the Romantics did in the 1800s could effectively capture their twentieth-century world or their experiences in that world.…

    • 1791 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, we see American romanticism in many points throughout the story. It starts with the devil offering answers to Tom and his wife’s money problems, for a price. The price is that at the end of his life, he has to go with the devil. The wife, overcome with greed, tries to take an offer not meant for her and was never heard from again. Tom’s love of greed for the thing that caused his wife’s death overtakes his better judgement. Once his time is coming to an end, he regrets his decision. He starts to worship a God that he doesn’t believe in, just so he wouldn’t end up in hell. All of this shows romanticism by showing that Tom and his wife choose the feeling of greed over…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays