the devil and daniel webster

Introduction

The story I had read was the Devil and Daniel Webster it was written by Stephen Vincent Ben’et. This story is a lot alike most of his other stories discussing what it means to be an American. Also this story is one of his most famous stories it combines folk-lore and history also it has been made into a play and so to be coming out a movie.

Story Summary

In this story it begins speaking about a character named Daniel Webster, which was from Marshfield, but, later the story begins to unravel and they begin speaking about a character named Jabez stone. Jabez Stone was from Cross Corners, which makes both Webster and Stone from New Hampshire. As you read you see that Jabez has had the worst luck if he was to grow corn they would get borer. If he was to get horses he it would get spavins then trade it in to get one that had staggers. Also say the neighbors had rocks in their soil he would have boulders luck was not on Jabezs side. So one day as Jabez is plowing he broke his plowshare on a boulder. This was the last straw for Jabez and he says, “I vow it’s enough to make a man want to sell his soul to the devil! And I would, too, for two cents!” Soon after this he felt a chill run through his body being a New Hampshireman he wouldn’t take it back. Later that night a man pulled up in a nice buggy and went to the door and asked for Jabez Stone he told the family it was a lawyer but, at heart he knew who it was. Then they begin to speak he asked his name he responds with I have a lot of names but you can call me Scratch. Then they soon discuss the contract and Jabez sells his soul the dark man took out a shiny silver pin and made him sign his name in blood. Then things began to go smoothly for him his horses were healthy, his cows got fat, and his crops were the talk of the neighborhood. The man stopped by a year a later to discuss the mortgage and Stone said I beginning to have doubts then Scratch takes out the contract to remind him. As he took out the contract there was a moth that spoke to him it was the voice of mister Stevens. Embarrassed the dark man says he should really be in the collecting box then he slips up in a way and says someone like Daniel Webster needs a special made box. They make a deal Jabez and Scratch they have a 4-year extension. Stone didn’t realize ...

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...ylvania, and went to school at Yale University. Some of his works consist the volume of poetry Heavens and Earth, the novels Young People's Pride and Spanish Bayonet, and the narrative poem John Brown's Body, about the American Civil War. For the later work, Benét won a Pulitzer prize for poetry in 1929. Thirteen O'Clock, a collection of short stories, includes “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” which he adapted into a words for a folk opera in 1939 and which was made into a motion picture, All That Money Can Buy, in 1941. For Western Star, an unfinished narrative poem on the settling of America, Benét won a second Pulitzer Prize in 1944. Benét's works are remarkable in their imaginative trace of the American scene.

Conclusion

In conclusion I believe this story was very good although hard to follow I would enjoy reading more of his stories. I would recommend this story to a lot of different people because the story is kind of weird in a weird kind of way.

Works Cited

http://www.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/devil/devil.htm

http://shopping.yahoo.com/shop?d=v&id=1800056764

http://www.seacoastnh.com/lawyers/websterhouse.html