Comparing Pride In The Devil And Tom Walker And The Chase

One similarity we see in Washington Irving’s stories is a similarity in setting. In both stories he speaks about mountainous areas. In the Devil and Tom Walker Washington Irving states “…on the opposite side the land rises abruptly from the water’s edge into a high ridge…” and in Rip van winkle he states “Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family…” Washington Irving grew up and lived in the Hudson River valley, located near the Kaatskill Mountains, which could be a reason for the similarities in his stories Rip Van Winkle and The Devil and Tom Walker. Another similarity in both stories are where Tom and Rip Van Winkle live. Tom lived in “…a forlorn-looking house that stood alone and had an air of starvation.” Rip lived in a house “which was sadly time-worn and weather beaten…”

In “The Devil and Tom Walker” they use literary archetypes that represents universal patterns of human behavior or commonly-held beliefs. This story takes place in 1727 in Boston Massachusetts. There are three main characters who are very similar but a little different. Tom Walker is small, greedy, overly confident, and miserly. Tom Walker’s wife Mrs. Walker is selfish, verbally abusive towards Tom, and she is known as a termagant because she nags and complains all of the time. Last but not least old scratch has many other names that have been given to him by his personality, but he is the devil.

Although both The Devil and Tom Walker and Young Goodman Brown address the idea of sinning, Irving uses allusions and Biblical references and Hawthorne uses Foreshadowing and Imagery to express their theme of, no one is perfect, and that it is in human nature to sin.

The short stories “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” were written at very different times but can be seen as similar stories. The depictions of the devil, the role of religion, and the resolution of each story were very different.

During the early 1700s, a traveler met a man in the Massachusetts forest. However, this was no mortal man, but the devil. “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Devil and Tom Walker,” two short stories, both start out in this way. Washington Irving wrote the latter in 1824, which tells how Tom Walker profited through working for the devil. In 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Young Goodman Brown,” which describes Goodman Brown’s woodland encounter with the Devil. The two stories share specific ideas regarding the devil, overpowering minor deviations between each other.

A Faustian legend is a story in which a character trades something of great personal value to the devil in order to receive personal gain. Since this type of literature originated in the Fourth Century it has spread throughout the world. Two relatively recent versions of this legend are “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Vincent Benét. These stories show many similarities as well as a few differences. While both Benét and Irving present similar themes in setting of the tales and motivation in the Faustian character, they do differ in the nature of that character and their visual presentation of the Devil.

Throughout this story Irving condemns greed. In the beginning of the story, Tom is characterized as a greedy man. One way this is shown is when his wife is killed by the devil. She brought many valuable goods to try and make a deal with the devil and she got into a fight and lost. When Tom found out about his wife he was more concerned about the loss of the valuable goods that his wife. Another

For a story by an author to be signified as a classic literature piece, it requires a timeless feature which the main passage can echo throughout the ages. Particularly, a relation to society's behavior and values. The characters, created by Washington Irving, most especially Tom Walker, gives us an insight on how his life centered predominantly on wealth up to the point where he is consumed by temptation. Tom Walker’s engagement in a deal with the Devil portrays how money-driven society has become more prominent through the times of the 1700s and today's world.

As people grow up, it is made apparent to them that the Devil is an evil and rather a clever person. The greatest example of the devil in action is when the devil tempts Jesus. As most know, the devil fails to get Jesus to do evil. Jesus is both human and divine while the main character of The Devil and Tom Walker, Tom Walker, is a “meager, miserly fellow”. Unfortunately, Tom Walker is not Jesus so the reader must focus in on Washington Irving’s The Devil and Tom Walker to see just exactly how and when the Devil won his game. Irving portrays to the reader that the devil cannot be beaten at his own game through setting, characters, and plot. As people have seen in sports, the setting of a game (where, when, weather, etc.) can have a big impact on the game. The same goes for The Devil and Tom Walker.

“The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, and “Prey” by Richard Matheson all utilize grotesque or bizarre occurrences and a mysterious nature as their two themes. These authors used these themes for individual purposes that were not the same but all to give a lesson. Washington Irving wrote about how money can’t buy you happiness, Edgar Allan Poe wrote about how you cannot hold on to the past, and Richard Matheson wrote about how you cannot take control of your loved one’s life.

Genesis chapter 11 verses 1-9 explains the story of the Tower of Babel and how its discontinuance lead to the making of different nations. The story of The Tower of Babel makes an impact in both a historical and biblical sense for the simple fact that the story or at least a version of it exists in many different culture and religions to some degree. The story takes place in the land of Shinari and develops by shifting perspectives from unnamed people to God. The earthly and the divine are at odds and in the end, God makes the decision that is best even though not understood by the human perspective. The main purpose of the story is more descriptive than prescriptive and as such the story is told as a narrative, this chapter is not like the ten commandments when God made laws for the people to follow but instead a story for the future generations to understand the underlying message that just because one can do something it does not mean that they should.

In the short story “The Devil and Tom Walker”, the author shows greed by the main character selling his soul for a large treasure, being a cheap and greedy moneylender, and the lack of the main character and his wife sharing the wealth between each other in order to show that people will do anything for money and become rich.

Just like how God came down and mixed up the people’s speech in order to stop the tower being built because, humans would grow corrupt and bring the destruction of the world if they had the power of God. This allusion was to show the destruction of self loathing. The people in Babel loathed their powerlessness towards God. So, they decided to build a tower in order to become like God. However, this in turn makes them more powerless when God mixed up their language and flinged them to different parts of the world.

While Ahab was still the obedient captain he once was, he was one of the most successful and higher rewarding captains. Unexpectedly, in the midst of a whaling, Ahab and his crew encountered the whale he now refers to as “Moby Dick” or “the white whale.” The crew initiated in capturing the whale, but this whale was different. Rather than capturing the whale, the whale captured Ahab and though Ahab escaped, he did not escape entirely. Moby Dick had dismembered and consumed half of one of Ahab’s legs. Ever since this incident, Ahab’s one and only desire or, as stated in the text, “...his one unsleeping, ever-pacing thought” has been to kill Moby Dick; which soon turns him obsessive (Melville). Ahab would not let anyone or anything stop him from achieving his goal, “...’I’ll chase him ‘round Good Hope, and ‘round the Horn, and ‘round the Norway Maelstrom, and ‘round

The story of the Tower of Babel is one of the well-known stories that can be found in the book of Genesis. This story explains why we encounter different languages around the world. As readers analyze this story, one can understand that it has a deeper meaning than just pertaining to be a simple story to be read out aloud. As a matter of fact, there happen to be many questions throughout the story that many raises to why God did that specific action in the story. If one sits down and carefully understand the moral lesson, one can figure out easily the main purpose of having this story in the Bible. To sum up, the story of the Tower of Babel contains numerous teachings and answers to the questions many readers arise while reading.