Symbolism In The Devil And Tom Walker

Analysis of Romantic Literatures

Emotion, it is derived from an individual’s soul or inner-self. Emotions and the imagination are reactions to what we interact with in the world. They can be negative or positive and still have important parts in people’s lives. The focus is on the individual’s sentiment and idealistic views with an insufficient reality. Romanticism is a movement of artistic, literary, musical and intellectual views of emotions over logic. In the 1800s, a period loyal to emotion rather than logic started in America and still sparks today.

The Devil and Tom Walker, by Washington Irving, tells a story of a man that sells his soul to the devil to gain wealth. The treasure was said to be buried under a gigantic tree in a swamp by Kidd the pirate. This story has many examples of symbolism through the characteristics of the swamp and the woodsman or the Devil. An example is the Devil in the forest. The Devil throughout the story is only seen in the swamp except for when he goes to kill Tom. In the swamp, Tom finds what use to be an Indian fort and the Devil says, “Since the red men have been exterminated by you white savages, I amuse myself by presiding at the persecutions of Quakers and Anabaptists.”

He also lived his life freely because he comes and goes however he pleases and makes a path for himself in his life. This story has elements of life and consciousness because it tells that living is so much more than being alive. In this story it states, “I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and stuck out all the marrow of life…” Thoreau tells us the way he wants to live and that he doesn’t want to die yet without actually living his life the way he wanted