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Essays about the devil and tom walker
Essays about the devil and tom walker
Literary elements in the devil and tom walker page 1
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Satire Using exaggeration, irony or ridicule to expose and criticize people's aspects of society. Satire is the theme of “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving. The Institution of marriage, Organized religion/religious types, and the white establishment and respect in white males. These all are contradictory in the story. The institution of marriage is a topic that is touched on several occasions throughout “The Devil and Tom Walker”. In the passage Tom is not concerned about his wife dying not even the least bit at all. This is very ironic because in a marriage you are supposed to care for each other and Tom has no worries at all. Marriage is a mutual agreement that you love and share things with the other person, in Tom’s marriage
In “The Devil and Tom Walker,” written by Washington Irving’s, Tom Walker gives his soul to the devil for greediest. For example, in the story, it was said, “He accumulated bonds and mortgages, gradually squeezed his customers closer and closer and sent them at length, dry as a sponge, from his door.” This shows how greedy and selfish he was for not caring about what anyone else feels,
In America, the period of Romanticism brought up many depictions of society that held their place in America many decades ago. This society was made up of Puritans who held a strong belief system and was even their form of governing. Romantic authors like Washington Irving, who wrote “The Devil and Tom Walker”, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote The Scarlet Letter included Puritans in their stories to convey a message. In both works, the authors focus on Puritans in their stories to convey an image of who Puritans were and what they did, though not in a positive light through the use of the devil and the setting of a forest. This is because of how Romanticism generally satirized Puritans and tried to portray them as completely contradictory
At the beginning, Tom is very self-centered and preoccupied with his work. He finds what he wants to do more important than what his wife wants to do that night. Once faced with the reality of death, he realizes how important his wife is to him. This forces him to be strong and stay alive, for her sake. The only reason he made it back into his house was because of how much he cared for her. Tom then decides to go find her at the movies, which shows that he has become less self-centered and more aware of his wife’s feelings.
Soon he falls asleep and when he wakes up, he finds that he is on a table and a scythe is being lowered from the ceiling. The scythe is another symbol of death. As the scythe is coming down, he tries to find a way to get away from it. At the end of the story, he is saved at the last moment by " an outstretched arm caught my own as I fell, fainting, into the abyss." Washington Irving also talks about death and the devil in his short story "The Devil and Tom Walker." He writes more about the devil than he does death and he does not put himself in the place of the main character like Poe did. Tom, the main character, is a greedy person along with his wife. As he comes home one night, he goes through some woods and meets the devil. "Tom might have felt disposed to sell himself to the devil," but he was afraid to. On the other hand, his wife was not afraid and she disappears. Then Tom makes a deal with the devil, but soon "he thought with regret of the bargain he had made with his black friend, and set his wits to work to cheat him out of the conditions." He turns to religion and carries Bibles with him to keep the devil away, but it does
Can you imagine yourself locked up in a room with no doors? Similar to a room with no doors, there is no way out of hell if it was one's destiny. In the short story "The Devil & Tom Walker" by Washington Irving, the main character's fate is hell because of his wrong decisions in life, accepting a deal with the devil for earthly benefits. Irving reinforces his message about not making decisions that may damn your soul with the use of literary elements and figurative language. Wisely, Irving combines characterization, mood and point of view to perpetuate the theme of the story in the reader's mind.
Written during the American Romanticism period, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” by William Irving, personifies the belief in the primacy of imagination. The period of Romanticism in America is often seen as the crucial period of American culture, as it was the central movement of the Renaissance period that moved into a more free-feeling and artistic approach to literature. American Gothic literature made its early appearance with William Irving, first with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in 1820, and carrying over to “The Devil and Tom Walker” in 1824, both of which use a macabre approach to establish a moral ending (Matterson). Told by a narrator known as Geoffrey Crayon, “The Devil and Tom Walker” takes on the tone of a legend or tall tale as the story describes the life of a greedy money lender by the name of Tom Walker, who sells his soul to the devil to gain wealth. Irving ultimately uses literary elements such as symbolism and character development, as well as themes such as greed and hypocrisy to establish a moral to the corrupt man’s tale.
In Washington Irving’s story, The Devil and Tom Walker, Irving uses his imagination to convey his thoughts about the truth of life through symbols and characterization. In one specific instance in the story, the main character, Tom Walker, is walking home and “he took what he considered a shortcut homeward, through the swamp. Like most shortcuts, it was an ill-chosen route.” The path being “thickly grown with great gloomy pines” symbolizes the path of wrongdoings, bad decisions, and darkness. By taking this path, one then strays off the path of
Satire is a commonly used literary device and it can be seen multiple times in both the illustrations “Gin Lane” by William Hogarth and in “Untitled” by Paul Kuczynski. Whether it be the downfall of London after the introduction of gin or the overtaking of physical interaction by social media, he use of satire in these art pieces help portray their different messages.
In “The Story of the Good Little Boy” Mark Twain uses satire as one of his main points in this story. Satire is an author’s way of getting the reader’s attention through comedy to show the issues with a political or societal view, because of the way an
Irving, Washington. “The Devil and Tom Walker”. Elements of Literature: Fifth Course. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2008. 175-185. Print.
“Satire: A Double Edged Sword” by Ines Santinhos Goncalves elucidates parody and satire and how it has influenced many topics over time; an example would how parody can affect the public’s opinions on politics. The author includes this quote from Tim Bale which ultimately sums up her views on this topic “Satire is a double-edged sword. On one hand it may well draw people into at least thinking about politics who otherwise may not do so. On the other hand, by poking fun at politicians, it helps undermine respect for them and contributes to the idea that the whole thing is a game without any genuine sense of mission or real consequences” (Bale). This quote helps her to maintain her point that the use of satire and parody can have both a positive
Washington Irving displays a sense of humor throughout “The Devil and Tom Walker” about greed, marriage and religion to help the reader, become a better person. Tom Walker makes a Faustian Bargain, also known as a deal with the devil. Tom has a lot of problems with his abusive wife, his desire for riches and getting into the afterlife. Washington Irving tells us the story of Tom Walker in a humorous way. Irving does this to display a message to his readers.
In conclusion, Mark twain shares his beliefs about human nature, religion, and racism that surrounded the nation in his period. He uses satire in order to criticize and mock the hypocrisy of the 19th-century society. He also humanizes Jim as the story develops making the readers witness the suffering he had to go through because of racial segregation. Mark Twain did a good job displaying how Huck confronted many evils and how his victories will help in taking the first step in changing
Satire is defined as, “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices” (www.dictionary.com). In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the author Mark Twain, does just that. Satire is used in the novel to mock many different aspects of society. Throughout his trip down the Mississippi River with Jim, Huck encounters a variety of people and situations that are designed to scoff at the American people. Of these situations, the institution of slavery is represented not only by the treatment of African-Americans by their owners but as well as how society viewed them. Satire is used to picture the idea of “American trash” when represented by Huck’s Pap who is seen as a drunk. Satire is also used to
Use of Satire in 100 Years of Solitude and The House of the Spirits A major preoccupation with contemporary South American novelists, as seen with Gabriel Marquez's "100 years of solitude" and Isabelle Allende's "The house of the spirits", is the traditional and long lasting conflict between the Liberals and the conservatives. Although a common preoccupation with Marquez, Allende, and various other Latin American novelists the manner in which this preoccupation is expressed varies considerably depending on the author. In "100 years of solitude", Marquez looks to satire in all it's forms, to express this preoccupation. This is contrasted with Allende's "The House