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Literary analysis of the devil and tom walker
Literary analysis of the devil and tom walker
Literary analysis of the devil and tom walker
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In the story, “The Devil and Daniel Webster” the main character is Daniel Webster, and he is a lawyer who helped Jabez Stone from the hands of the devil. He and the devil held the trial in Stone’s kitchen with dead jury and judge. At the end of the story, Daniel appealed to jury and the judge as men who contributed to mankind, and he saved Jabez Stone from the devil. At the same time, he saved himself from the devil. On the contrary, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, the main character, realized that his deal with the devil was bad for him, he tried to deceive the devil.
The author describes Tom as a miserly meagre man. Tom lacks quality and his greediness makes him even less valuable. Another example of Tom’s greediness is when the narrator states, “He built himself, as usual, a vast house, out of ostentation, but left the greater part of it unfinished and unfurnished out of parsimony.” (Irving online). Tom is so greedy that he builds a grand house but decides not to finish the rest of the house because he does not want to spend any more money.
In all three novels “The Feather Pillow” by Horacio Quiroga, “Prey” by Richard Matherson, and “ The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving all have an eloquent amount of elements all including Mystery/ambiguity: and a supernatural force included in their short stories. The authors purpose for these elements are to give the reader a thrill of mystery and supernatural forces that defy the nature of our world and fill the story with action, all wile keeping the reader reading to the end wile keeping them on the edge of their seat waiting to see what happens next. Each novel has supernatural forces teeming inside it ,effecting the novel and also adding -a so called- villain for the novel. First the short story “prey” by Matherson, has a supernatural
Washington Irving wrote many wonderful romanticism stories. One of these stories, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, involves a man, making a deal with the Devil. It begins when the elderly man, Tom Walker, walks through a marsh one day instead of his usual route home through the town. He walked in the marsh until water seeped into his shoe, and he sat down to drain the water, and saw a black man, who he later found out was the Devil, sitting on a stump, looking at him. They talked for a while, until Tom asked the Devil, “‘The upshot of all which is, that, if I'm not mistake not,’ said Tom, sturdily, ‘you are he commonly called Old Scratch’.
He was tormented by society because of his actions from his past, towards a child. This, as well as the death of his friend, made Tom suffer severely. Tom, had lots of faith in God, which he though should have helped save his friend. Once Tom lost faith, he agonised and was doubtful of almost everything. This torment can be seen through the simile, “Tom is like the dark interior of a house”, as Tom is looked upon by society as bad and as a madman, going crazy from his past.
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.
In literature, animals are often used to describe the nature of humans. In the novel, Devil in a Blue Dress, author Walter Mosley uses animals and animal stereotypes to characterize Easy Rawlins, Raymond Alexander, and Daphne Monet. In addition, Mosley reveals complex issues of cultural identity through animal symbolism. Easy Rawlins contradicts racial stereotypes by being intelligent and resists violence and crime. Easy is compared to a jay because jays are not violent or savage creatures.
The selling of one’s soul to the devil is caused by one’s goal to obtain something of great value like, fame, fortune and power. Which leads one to getting hurt or losing everything. The story and the movie had various motivations, by dealing with the consequences. Foremost, In Washington Irving's “The Devil and Tom Walker” demonstrates his motivation of greed by dealing with the devil.
Nature was introduced in romantic novels and poems. In the poem ‘’Thanatopisis’’ by William Cullen Bryant he described death to something that was peaceful and to be embraced. He believed that you become one with nature, one with earth once you die. But in the poem ‘’Devil and Tom Walker’’ by Washington Irving he described death to be evil, sinful. He believed death to horrifying and something to not be embraced.
Behind all the characters presented in The Devil and Tom Walker, there is a slave trader figure with extreme greed that sacrifices his own conscience to earn large profits and treats people the same way as property.
Satire is used by many famous writers to create humor and to criticize people’s unwise, and senseless actions. As George Orwell once said, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." (Orwell, 1945). People will always be greedy and think they are smarter than others but this is untrue. The one who thinks he is smarter or better than the other will always end up losing in life.
Earlier when he got the idea his "smile stretched like a weary snake waking up by a fire. " The snake simile suggests the devil and evil acts, as opposed to his chance at salvation. He will choose to listen to this devil as he abandons Lucynell, an angel of Gawd, at The Hot Spot. Throughout the story Tom had showed some good in him but ultimately he was evil. He was only looking to his own advantage and did whatever he felt the need to to get there.
In “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, there are many romantic characteristics. In this short story, Tom Walker had a miserable life, his wife was abusive and they were poverty-stricken. He met the Devil in the swamp and decided to make a deal with him. This deal changed Tom’s life, for better and worse. Out of all of the romantic characteristics used in the story, the two that are the most prominent are the nature and spirituality.
It also seems like many people in England are trying to get rich, no matter what the cost. The economic depression works in Tom’s favor because it makes people more desperate to borrow money from Tom, even on bad terms, just as Tom became more and more desperate to strike up a deal with the devil when Old Scratch made him wait to do so. In exploiting the vulnerable, Tom is acting all the more immorally. It is only in old age, when death is near, that Tom begins to fear the devil, as he should have all along. “As Tom waxed old, however, he grew thoughtful.
Which allows us to see that he real was corrupt because he so desired money which would allow him to be with Daisy, but ironic enough it’s what he did to raise his wealth that drove Daisy away. Earlier in the book we are able to see how Tom has been corrupted by his money. In the book he is having an affair with Myrtle who is Wilson’s wife, it is often said that she has married below herself.
