Comparison of Washington Irvin´s The Devil and Tom Walker and Rip Van Winkel

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.

The two stories were alike in the fact that both authors lost their parents at a very young age. Since they lost their parents at a young age, they were both raised by their grandparents. Both stories also begin with a safe arrival to a new country. Both also said the journey to the new country was a two month long trip. And lastly, the the refugees and the pilgrims traveled to a completely different continents and had to adapt to new cultures. These are all the similarities between the two stories.

Through the course of “Rip Van Winkle” you stumble upon many remarkable and strange characters. Washington Irving reveals these complex characters through humor and exaggeration. Irving not only gives readers the characters

“Lead me not into temptation”... but in all honesty who hasn't given into temptation? Many will give into temptation even though we know it is unwise. But why? Why do we have a desire to do something even though we know what we are doing is wrong? Because sometimes we cannot help it. We are often weak and give in. Examples of temptation can be seen all throughout literature and everyday life. Temptation is inevitable and can corrupt even the best of people.

Not only do both writers have similarities in their life styles they both led similar lives .

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.

What is the Tower of Babel? Besides being a big, old building, it is a symbol of the consequence of pride. The plan was to build a tower that could reach the heavens in order to “make a name for ourselves”, but God had different plans. He “scattered them” and “confused the language of the whole world” (Genesis 11). This story is just one of many in the Bible discussing the why the vice pride is regarded as the worst of the Seven Deadly Sins. Both Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (“The Chase”) contain this theme, and thus provide insight on the disastrous results of pride.

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.

In the story, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” there is a humorous way of looking at serious topics. Washington Irving shows his thoughts on these topics through the characters in this story. He attacks ways of living and social ideas that he thinks people should live without. In this story, Irving criticizes violence, greed, and false piety.

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.

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.

Similarities and differences are present between nearly anything. For instance, two books can be compared in regards to their themes. Likewise, multiple people can be contrasted in regards to their personality. Similarities and differences can be good and bad and they can also help one to clearly see which of the subjects that are being compared are better than the other. Another example of where two subjects can be compared is in Macbeth and The Social Network, in regards to the characters. One may wonder how such different pieces of work could possibly be compared and contrasted, but after analyzing both pieces, it is clear that such similarities and differences exist. Characters

Sometimes in literature, two different forms of writing tell two different stories with lots of similarities through characters. The book The Catcher and The Rye by J.D Salinger and the movie The Dead Poets Society directed by Peter Weir is a perfect example of two different literary works that share similarities through characters. The Dead Poet Society follows half a school year of 5 main characters at Welton Academy each with a different connection to Holden Caulfield the main character from The Catcher in the Rye. These 6 main characters are Neil Perry, the smart one, Richard Cameron, the sycophant, Todd Anderson, who is exceeding shy, Knox Overstreet, the romantic, and Charlie Dalton,

Rip Van Winkle, a story written by Washington Irving in the early 1800s, demonstrates the emergence and development of American Mythology. Packed full of mythological elements, Irving’s tale depicts a man who encounters mysterious and fantastical characters in equally intriguing settings. Rip Van Winkle displays three major factors that contribute to mythology: mysterious, historical setting, remarkable and strange characters, and heroic, magical events and their consequences.

You are being deceived; two things can seem similar, but really, they are very different. What you initially see is not always accurate, this is especially prominent in literature. Though “Dark They Were and Golden Eyed” and “The Last Dog” appear to be similar, because they have similar genes and characters, they have contrasting themes that are developed in vastly different ways.