Washington Irving was the author of “The Devil and Tom Walker”, in his early life he began to study to be a lawyer, but soon falling away from that finding he had more interest in traveling and writing. Irving’s work including, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”, became known as an important part of American heritage today. The setting was in New England, the year 1727, just at the time that earthquakes were prevaled. Around the area of where Tom Walker had lived with his wife, Tom had found an old Indian fort which he chose to rest at on his way homeward. The main characters in “The Devil and Tom Walker” are obviously the Devil, “a great black man...neither Negro nor Indian” and Tom Walker who was a “miserly fellow”.
Washington Irving wrote two stories that have become profoundly popular over the decades. Some of the stories many stories he wrote were The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and The Devil and Tom Walker. Even though the stories were both good, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow was written better in my opinion. I’m going to prove that the Legend of Sleepy Hollow was better by comparing and contrasting common themes they shared. The themes I chose to compare and contrast are wealth, the supernatural, and karma.
“Romanticism is seen as a response to the Enlightenment.” (4) It makes sense that the literature was the way that it was during this time period. Americans were essentially looking for someone to liberate them from British rule so they could finally experience freedom. It was all about the “heroism” and superiority of the American man. Lewis and
Have you ever called something, one thing while your friend calls it another? Have you ever heard of the Devil being called Hell-Boy or Satan? In both of these stories the Devil is called Scratch. The supporting characters in “The Devil and Tom Walker”,written by Washington Irving, differ from the supporting characters in “The Devil and Daniel Webster”, written by Stephen Vincent Benet. First, let’s talk about the supporting characters.
The story “The Devil and Tom Walker” takes place in a stagnant, lonely and treacherous forest. The author, Washington Irving, while writing was also a satirist and a lawyer. He made short fiction popular and was a very original writer. The characters in this story include Tom Walker, Tom Walker’s wife, and the devil. The conflict in this story is when Tom Walker realizes that he does not want to go to hell, so he makes a deal with the devil.
Washington Irving consolidates many things to take out and use in our daily life in his story. He tells us how society transforms into monsters who only care about the pretentious wealthy. Many wealthy people are blindsided and only care about themselves and maintaining their image. They do not understand how money is not everything and they have to focus on real things. They simply do not care and or realize the side effects of living as such.
In the fictional story written by Washington Irving, "The Devil and Tom Walker," the author illustrates the persuasion used by the devil himself, his attempts to push Walker into becoming a slave trader to fulfill his desire of wealth, this gives us an idea of what the people of the 1720s and the 1730s were like, desperate for an easy escape using money. Irving writes “Tom resolutely refused: he was bad enough in all conscience, but the Devil himself could not tempt him to turn slave-trader.” This embodies that although Tom had some evil in him to achieve what he wanted, he wouldn’t turn to such extremes, and it seems as if people during that time wanted an escape from the poverty they were suffering from the separation of the mother country.
American Romanticism were mostly written during the 1800’s. The use of American Romanticism was to get readers to read. The authors would exaggerate stories to get them attached and start reading them. American Romanticism were stories that were mostly gothic or dark stories. The death of a protagonist is usually over exaggerated.
Love of material things only leads to destruction of yourself and community. In the story “The Devil and Tom Walker” written by Washington Irving, this statement is a main theme throughout the story. Tom Walker the main character is known throughout the Charles Bay for his greed, and it is this greedy materialistic lifestyle that leads him to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for money. Tom's unfortunate situation is meant to warn readers not to let their greed blind them,which is the case in "The Devil and Tom Walker," it can lead to disastrous consequences. Tom Walker lives by this materialistic lifestyle, through the vanity and greed in his relationship with his wife.
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm” (Churchill). Irving was a very successful writer in his time and still well known today. Washington Irving is firmly planted into the tapestry of American literature because of his use of mood and symbolism in his short story, “The Devil and Tom Walker”. Washington Irving was born in New York City in 1783. Irving had a knack for making up authors for stories he created.
In Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker”, Irving characterizes Tom as selfish man that only cares about himself. In the beginning of the story, Tom decides to take a shortcut through a swamp where he encounters the devil asking to make a deal. When he arrived home, Tom shares to his wife about the hidden treasure mentioned by the devil, which encourages his wife to make a deal with the devil herself and take all the portable article of value as an offering. After his wife’s extensive disappearance, he decides to search for her but only discovers his wife’s organs Instead of worrying about mysterious disappearance, Tom is most concerned about the loss of his items when he whispers to himself, “‘Let us get hold of the property... we
The short story “The devil and Tom Walker '' by Washington Irving represents the beliefs of the Dark Romanticism movement. In the story Tom has a strong ego and he makes decisions that he later regrets. Tom bargains with the devil to gain wealth; however, when he later regrets his decision, he becomes a violent church-goer. In the end, though, Tom is unable to fix his mistakes. Irving's story illustrates three major tenets of Dark Romanticism which includes the presence of the supernatural, the belief that nature is dark and evil, and the belief that individuals are prone to sin.
American literature has undergone enormous changes, with each era being a representation of the beliefs and values of the time period. The stories “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “The Devil and Tom Walker” are two examples of American literature that represent different eras and their changing beliefs. James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” follows Walter Mitty, who uses vivid daydreams to escape his tiresome life. In “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving encompasses Tom Walker’s greediness, which eventually leads him to make a deal with the devil. Although Thurber’s piece is from the modernism era and Irving's piece is from the puritanism era, both authors analyze a theme of escapism, an insightful perspective that
American Romanticism lasted from the 1830s to 1865 and was a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement that was inspired by the European Romantic movement. This time period was very fragile in America because of the uncertainty of building a new nation, where people thought they fit in that nation, and the Civil War that broke out in 1861. To help out the disorganized nation, American romantics used poems, short stories, and novels to provide a new way of thinking that showed a faith in nature as a revelation of truth and moral values and a tendency to value individualism over all social forms or systems. Works like The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Much Madness Is Divine Sense” by Emily Dickinson, “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant, “The Devil and Tom Walker” by
The romantic era truly served as a sandbox that would pave the way for future authors, pushing the boundaries of what the colonial era had defined as literature. Romanticism is a very important time period to study because, in my opinion, it is the origins of creative writing. Once bold authors pushed aside the ideals of writing implemented in colonial America, they were able to tell wondrous and deep stories that have still stuck with us today. Through their pieces, we have found a way to cope with sorrow, explore the world, and question the norms, able to push these limits as they did from our homes — though to us, it doesn’t truly feel like we’re still in our bedroom as we read, but in a land crafted by those
