Greed In Washington Irving's The Devil And Tom Walker

The Devil and Tom Walker The Devil and Tom Walker is a short story that was written by Washington Irving depicting Tom Walkers greed. Near a swamp in the 1700’s, lived a grumpy man named Tom Walker and his wife, who was also a grumpy hag. They were both greedy, so greedy that they would even try to trick and cheat each other. All they did was argue and bicker about money and wealth. Some of the disputes often even became physical, evident by some of the occasional marks of Tom’s face (Page 314, Line 33). One day while he was out in the swamp, Walker stumbled across some indian remains with a tomahawk imbedded into them. He kicks the skull, and is startled when a Negro man speaks to him. The man was wearing a red sash around his body, with ash and soot staining his face, as if he is

And when Tom tells his wife about the strange encounter, she greedily pleads and encourages him to accept the devils’ offer (Page 319, Line 151), but only to spite her he refuses (Page 319, Line 153-156). “He was not damned to please her.” (Page 319, Line 155). When she finds that she is unable to change his mind, she sets out to find the devil herself, planning to offer her own soul for the same prize, a rumored buried treasure. She takes all of her household possessions that were worth anything of value, and sets out to find old scratch. When she does not return for several days, Tom begins to worry for his possessions, so he sets back out to find his wife. When he returns to the place where he first met old scratch, he finds an apron hanging in a tree. Thinking that he’s found his things he opens the apron and finds a heart and a liver. It is evident that his wife has died while in the midst of trying to negotiate with the devil. Tom is grateful and relieved about his wives death, because now he didn’t have to share his fortune with her (Page 320, Line