Alternative Essay on The Devil and Tom Walker In the short story of The Devil and Tom Walker written by Washington Irving, religion played some parts throughout the story but didn’t have a very huge impact on the protagonist, Tom himself. Tom’s character only turned to religion near the end of the story to ask for help from God in reverse for what he has done to the innocent people of Boston. In other terms, Tom turned to religion for his personal benefits rather than his inner relationship with God, which in the end didn’t go so well in his favor. The story shows the consequences of sin in religion throughout many aspects from beginning to end. The story started out when the narrator tells about the short story of what happened to Kidd the pirate and how his execution lead to the story …show more content…
As tom describes in the story, “ It was an ill chosen route.” he says. Tom finds a skull under the ground as he was said to be digging up the Earth at the old fort. A skull in this case shows a symbolic representation of the devil itself. Tom gives it a kick to get the dirt off; little did Tom knew, the stranger sitting opposite from him who was dressed like an Indian sitting at the stump of the tree was the devil himself. The devil appeared when Tom had dug up the skull from the ground in which the treasures laid. The strange man then pointed towards the different trees with carvings from axes of names of Boston’s richest men and told Tom what their secrets were to becoming rich. What Tom never understood was why their names were carved into the trees with an ax. But there was nothing Tom loved more than money and wealth. The devil wanted Tom’s soul in return for Captain Kidd’s treasures, but ironically Tom rejected his offering because he did not want to share the fortune with his miserly