And Contrast The Devil And Tom Walker And The Fall Of The House Of Usher

The Nationalistic Period occurred between 1825 and 1840, which also includes the Jacksonian Era and Westward Expansion (Mintz). During the Nationalistic Period, “The Living Temple” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving, and The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe depicted the change of the American government. They reflected a period of time where the American people had uncertain views that led to a downfall in how the government operated due to new policies and expansion.
The legend of Kidd the pirate is a metaphor for how the United States government views money and incorporating it into national spending. Kidd hid money at the “foot of the hill” because it was a good hiding place where he could

The devil tempted Tom to become a “slave trader,” but he would not accepted this offer so his other option was “open a broker’s shop” where he would “drive merchants to bankruptcy” (Irving). Tom fell into a trap, and from that moment hope was vanished and he was drawing close to his desire that would never come true. The ingenious blend of “seriocomic pathos” helps highlight the increase corruption of money distribution and reitterates the importance of Tom’s new life that was graciously given to him (Mintz). Tom “starved the horses” and the “ungreased wheels” squealed and growned it is as if you could hear “the souls of the poor debtors he was squeezing” (Irving). This is parallel to the first depression where people were in chaos and felt disconnected to the government and world. Through Irving’s simile, he comapres the “ungreased wheels” to “the souls of the poor he was squeezing” (Irving) which helps create a “vein of humor” (Mintz). Tom alwasy carried a Bible in his coat picket and desk, but one day he frogot his Bibles which were under his pocket and buried “under the mortage” he was soon to close. Th black man “whicked him like a child into the saddle” and they gaolloped away in the midst of a thunder storm (Irving). His minor sin of not carrying his Bible lead to his death where his hope for Kidd’s treasure was lost. It also shows how minor government spending could lead to a great amount of trouble like an economic depression. Irving’s ideal readers should make fun “at the fictional audience” who think that Tom was carried away to his “fate” in a “carriage driven by a black horse” (Piedmont-Marton). His “seriocomic pathos” makes this incident ironic because he sets it up in a serious tone, but has a dark sensor of humar that the reader should pick