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Allegory In The Devil And Tom Walker

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The Devil and Tom Walker is a short story published in 1824 by Washington Irving. The story takes place during 1724 in the colony of Massachusetts when Tom Walker, who is a greedy miser, happens to meet an old lumberjack in the nearby swamp. This lumberjack is known as Old Scratch and offers Tom immense wealth, specifically the treasure of Kidd the Pirate, in exchange for Tom’s soul. Tom initially needs time to ponder the offer, but eventually accepts it after his wife dies trying to fulfill the deal herself. Tom lives his whole life as an usurer, while still being just as cheap as he was, eventually getting taken by Old Scratch and fulfilling his end of the bargain. The Devil and Tom Walker is an allegory to many topics such as temptation,
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In each work of literature we’ve read this unit are all written by romantic writers. In “The Devil and Tom Walker”, the author Washington Irving, uses imagination, and nature that are traits of romanticism. The author displays nature as the setting of the story, and uses the nature to bring to story alive. He also uses imagination to bring the story alive, and emphasize of the description of the Devil. Another work of literature we read this unit was “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe.

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The stories, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and The Devil and Tom Walker each have there own style, theme, purpose of the writing, but most importantly they share similarities and differences. In the story from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God the author Jonathan Edwards gave a sermon with a purpose of warning people that they must turn to God for forgiveness before it is too late. If the people listened and turned to God they would be able to escape death by hell. Although, the only way forgiveness would be received is if the person was chosen by God through Jesus Christ, and they accepted.

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The decision making, process in accepting the money in ‘’The Devil & Tom Walker’’ is important in the story. The devil and Tom are the most important ones in the story. In the beginning of the story the greed of the kidd the pirate had brought him a deal that involved with death with no use for the money that the devil was to protect. Tom Walker therefore stumbles upon the devil, in the form of ‘’Old scratch’’ who makes him an offer that he couldn’t refuse to do. Tom had to give up his soul for the treasures of Kidd the pirate.

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In both “The Devil and Daniel Webster and “The Devil and Tom Walker, they both came face to face with the devil. They had different strategies on how to confront the devil. In the two short stories, the resolution, the depictions of the devil, and the role of religion or the saving grace are the similar and different things. The main idea of both stories is the resolution of what had happened to Daniel and Tom.

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287 Words | 2 Pages

Early into the age of romantic writing, a wonderful passage was written by Washington Irving called “The Devil and Tom Walker.” The short story was about a man named Tom Walker who stumbles upon another man who changes his life. Irving took many ideas that are present in other romantic pieces, one of them being mystery. Mystery was an important part in many of the lives of romantics. One example in his story was when Tom meets a man in the forest who prints his signature, or fingerprint, on the forehead of Tom.

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In the short story titled The Devil And Tom Walker,Washington Irving explains that no matter how hard life is going to never sell our soul. For instance, Tom wanted to save his wife but in ordinary to save her Tom had to sell his soul. Irving’s asserts that walker had to sell his store to save his wife from dying. The author’s purpose is to convince that the audience should should never sell their soul no matter the situation. The author writes in an serious tone for the audience to realize that selling out isn’t the right thing to do.

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‘He leaped with joy, for he recognized his wife 's apron, and supposed it to contain the household valuables. "Let us get hold of the property," said he, consolingly to himself, "and we will endeavor to do without the woman." ’ Tom was happy his wife was dead, so he didn’t have to share anymore, this makes him a selfish person. And also knowing The Devil did that, Tom made the treat with him by accepting the job of lending money and putting high interests, and eventually become rich: ‘"You shall open a broker 's shop in Boston next

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The Devil and Tom Walker had a very sad and truthful ending to it. The story talks about how the man spent his last days trying to turn to God in hope that God could save him from the Devil’s wrath. Then the story says that Tom Walker was seen being taken on the back of a black horse as the Devil came to collect and was never seen again. The sad truth that this the story is telling is that your actions affect how your life will turn out. Someone could have saved Tom Walker if he would have been more generous and respectful to the other people around him.

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The similarities of “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” are evident in their personality

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In search of wealth: Washington Irving’s The Devil and Tom Walker In The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving, Tom Walker is out to get rich by all means and he ends up in the amorality path as he pursues wealth through greed. The main theme of the story is greed, but other related themes that play an important role in the story include corruption, misery, and lack of morals. Several characters in The Devil and Tom Walker are engaged in the race of searching wealth and riches so much that they do not care about other human beings.

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Will Smith once said, “The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future.” In the stories “The Fall of The House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe (1839) and “The Devil & Tom Walker” by Washington Irving (1824) each author has their own style of writing, explaining/analyzing their literary devices. In Irving's story, Tom walker is greedy, and due to his greed, he faces demons internally. In Poe’s story, Roderick Usher deals with ghosts of all-consuming fear.

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Damnation and Salvation are two actions, which define a person’s mortal soul’s standing. Both are on opposite sides of the spectrum, which involve either turning away from, or embracing God. Instances of protagonists rejecting God can be found in the short stories, The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving, The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe, and, The Storm by Kate Chopin. All three stories show examples of people following their afflictions, which lead them toward damnation rather than salvation. In, The Devil and Tom Walker, by Washington Irving, the protagonist, Tom is lead into damnation by the Devil himself.

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Sure enough Old Scratch took Tom. The quote shows even though the poor man begged for more time, Tom, the dark and greedy man would not allow it. Emotion is also found when Tom loses his life to the Devil. The text states, “Tom had a lurking dread that the Devil, after all, would have his due. That he might not be taken unawares, therefore, it is said he always carried a small bible in his coat pocket” (Irving --).

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In the story’s opening the narrator talks about Tom walking in the wood,where he met the devil. He goes on to explain the scenery in the first paragraph: “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”(Irving, 153), this shows the narrator's appreciation for nature as he tries to find beauty in his natural surroundings and bring the non-existent to life. This passage also shows his use of personification as he's giving human qualities to nature. Another quality that was used was imagination, mostly through the character of the Devil. The Devil brings a supernatural element to the story not only through his existence but his appearance as

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The Devil And Tom Walker, was effective in relaying a message in the form of a legend. I would say that the story was basically based off of the moral message. If the message was not there then the story would not technically even exist. The main message of the story was not to be greedy and my opinion is that Irving used a lot of good figurative language and techniques to make this message and legend come to life.

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