The Devil And Tom Walker The Spirit Of Man

Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” illustrates how an individual’s corruption results from their ability to resist temptation, the virtue to act generously, and the self-discipline to perform genuinely. Temptation, symbolized by the Devil and characterized by desperation in this prose, is that catalyst that forces Tom’s proverbial ball to roll. First and foremost, Tom chooses a shortcut home out of ease and lack of time that “like most shortcuts... was an ill-chosen route (280);” along his path of “smothering mud (280)” and “half-drowned, half-rotting [hemlocks and pines] (280)” –likely representative of the comeuppances of giving into temptations–Tom confronts the Devil for the first time and eventually ends up selling his soul

The Lord God created man in his own image. He used the dust from the ground and molded it to create the first ever human, Adam. The

The Devil and Tom Walker is a short story written by Washington Irving. The story is about a legend of a pirates treasure hidden in a swamp and how a miserly man named Tom Walker finds it on his way home through a swamp. When Tom is in the swamp a dark tall man, Old Scratch, who Tom recognizes as the Devil, offers Tom a deal for the treasure. Tom goes home and tells his wife about the deal the Devil gave him, her greedy made her to take all their valuable possessions and go bargain with the Devil for the treasure. When she didn’t return Tom Walker decided to go look for his wife. When Tom was looking for her, he found her apron, liver, and her heart tied up to a tree. After seeing this Tom decided to make the deal with the Devil. The Devil tells Tom that he must do services to the devil for the treasure. He first tells Tom to become a slaver trader; however Tom refuses to become one. Finally the Devil tells Tom to become a corrupted money-loaner, which he agrees to, so he moves to Boston and becomes a moneylender. While at Boston Tom regrets doing the deal with the Devil and tries going to zealous church in a hope to redeem his soul for what has he done; however it was too late for Tom Walker. One afternoon while Tom’s victims were begging him for a delay, Tom lost his patience and his pity and yelled “The Devil take me… if I have made a farthing!" (Irving, The Devil and Tom Walker). Immediately after this statement Tom hears three knocks on his door and the Devil comes for Tom and rides away with him on his horse. The next day Tom’s house and all his belongings are burnt down, and Tom is never seen ever again.

Atticus Finch is a character from chapters 1-7 that demonstrates moral courage. Atticus shows moral courage. Atticus shows moral courage because he is an honest man. He often says to his kids to think of something from the others point of view, before someone judges them. “As Atticus had once advised me to do, I tried to climb into Jems skin and walk around in it.” (Page 64 paragraph 1) He always looked for and opportunity to make his children better people. Atticus told Scout to think about what Jem did and imagine herself in that situation. This shows that

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.

Atticus Finch possesses the virtues of a mockingbird in the book To Kill A Mockingbird. For example, after a rabid dog wandered into town “One-shot Finch” (Atticus) cautiously “brought the gun to his shoulder” and took away the threat. One of the key traits of a mockingbird was that they do no harm. Atticus didn’t believe in hunting because he had an unfair advantage over the animals. While Atticus did in fact do harm to the dog, it could’ve infected and killed the entire town with it’s disease if Atticus hadn’t acted. This is only one example of Atticus, similarity to a mockingbird preventing harm. Similarly, when Atticus took Tom Robinson’s case, a mob came to his jailhouse at night to attack or kill Tom. They were prepared to destroy anything

Both the short stories “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, also “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe, were written in the romantic time period. Romanticism typically contains the ideals of nature worship, nature imagery, as well as nature having an healing effect. Gothic Literature stemmed off of romantic literature which leads to many of the contradictory ideas in both. An example could be that romantics saw imagination while gothic writers saw darkness in the supernatural. Both the authors used very similar elements to make each literary work different but strong in their own way.

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.

In To Kill a Mockingbird by harper Lee, The story of a southern life in Maycomb during the mid-1930s you begin an exploration of human morality. Each character has morals on how to treat some one of the other race. Atticus and Bob Ewell are two characters with contrasting morals. Tom Robertson an African American male is court between both of them and is dependent the towns social morals in a court case.

Intent and Motive in The Devil and Tom Walker and The Devil and Daniel Webster

convey both the mood and meaning of the narrative. Irving creates a setting that is

“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.

First, Atticus Finch is a genuine, moral literary character because he knows that you must understand a person and know them before you can judge them. "Scout," said Atticus, "when summer comes you'll have to keep your head about far worse things... it's not fair for you and Jem, I know that, but sometimes we have to make the best of things, and the way we conduct ourselves when the chips are down—well, all I can say is, when you and Jem are grown, maybe you'll look back on this with some compassion and some feeling that I didn't let you down." (ch.11 pg.120) Atticus tries to explain to Scout the importance of understanding someone and getting to know the person before she does things. Atticus can take time to know a person, watching their actions, and seeing how they act. He then understands them and their position better than before, which can help him to better comprehend and

The criticism of religion in “The Devil and Tom Walker” “The Devil and Tom Walker” is a short story written by Washington Irving, an author for the Romantic period whose short stories include “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, His use of satire specifically against the institution of religion is seen multiple times in “The Devil and Tom Walker” from the corruption of a Deacon to the persecution of Quakers and Anabaptist to to becoming extremely religious out of fear. Irving criticized the religious establishment at the time by portraying them as hypocritical immoral people. In the story “The Devil and Tom Walker” Washington Irving criticizes religion by depicting a Deacon a member of the clergy as a tree beautiful on the outside

The Devil and Tom Walker was my favorite story to read because it was very interesting and had some good lessons. Tom made a deal with the devil for all the money in the world and sold his soul to the devil without knowing. Tom becomes rich and successful but soon regrets his bargain because he is very alone and unhappy. This was a pleasant read for me just because of the message portrayed and the way the author made it interesting. The author attempted to convince us that you can have all the money in the world and still be unhappy and have no one there for you. I think the message of the story was successful and it really showed me how money can be the root of all evil. The story showed how many people are in this world. They are so focused