The devil and tom walker literary devices. The Devil and Tom Walker Literary complianceportal.american.edu 2022-10-28

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"The Devil and Tom Walker" is a short story by Washington Irving that features a number of literary devices. These devices help to enhance the story and convey its themes and messages to the reader.

One literary device used in the story is personification. The Devil is personified as a character in the story, taking on human qualities and characteristics. This helps to make the story more engaging and immersive for the reader, as it allows them to better understand and relate to the character.

Another literary device used in the story is imagery. Irving uses vivid and descriptive language to create vivid images in the reader's mind. For example, the description of the swamp where Tom Walker meets the Devil is full of imagery, with the swamp being described as "dark and dismal," "sunken and spongy," and "overgrown with rank ferns and creepers." This imagery helps to set the mood and atmosphere of the story, making it more ominous and foreboding.

Symbolism is also used in the story. The Devil is a symbol of temptation and evil, while Tom Walker's greed is symbolized by his desire for the treasure. The treasure itself is also a symbol, representing the corrupting influence of wealth and power.

Irony is also present in the story. Tom Walker is described as being a "miserly" and "hard-hearted" man, but he ultimately meets a miserable end because of his greed and association with the Devil. This ironic twist helps to highlight the themes of greed and the consequences of moral failure.

In conclusion, "The Devil and Tom Walker" is a rich and engaging story that uses a variety of literary devices to enhance its themes and messages. These devices, including personification, imagery, symbolism, and irony, help to make the story more engaging and impactful for the reader.

The Devil and Tom Walker Literary complianceportal.american.edu

the devil and tom walker literary devices

As Tom grows older, however, he becomes anxious about having sold his soul into damnation in exchange for merely worldly success. Elements of Figurative Language - Motifs of Greed and Devilish Behavior! In the story the trees are examples of the people who are viewed in a good and positive way in the community. Her husband was continually prying about to detect her secret hoards, and many and fierce were the conflicts that took place about what ought to have been common property. There was nothing, however, to administer upon. Many short stories and screenplays are rich in A great lesson plan, after reading the story, is for students to create a scavenger hunt using the Storyboard Creator.

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The Devil and Tom Walker Literary Elements Storyboard

the devil and tom walker literary devices

On searching his coffers all his bonds and mortgages were found reduced to cinders. One evening Tom is taking a shortcut home through the swamp when he comes to the ruins of an old Indian fort. He continued writing and keeping up with correspondences until his death in 1859. We can turn to the horse again for pathos as the author plays on our sympathies for the animal to impress upon us what a nasty character Finally, Irving gives us an allegory in this story as he uses Tom Walker, his wife, and the devil to stand for the greed of human nature and the consequences that follow from it. In place of gold and silver, his iron chest was filled with chips and shavings; two skeletons lay in his stable instead of his half-starved horses, and the very next day his great house took fire and burnt to the ground" What message do these images suggest about material possessions and those who seek them? When Tom encounters with the devil, he notices the trunks are dead. Consequently, his wife decides to strike up a bargain with Old Scratch herself, and so she fearlessly treks to the old Indian fort one evening—only to return late that night sullen and unsuccessful.


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The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving Plot Summary

the devil and tom walker literary devices

This means that Deacon Peabody is a man in the priestly community but he still has bad interactions with the Native Americans that looks bad on him from the community. The most probable story as to her fate holds that when Tom went to search for her in the swamp some days later, he found only her apron bundled into which were a heart and liver, as well as evidence that his wife and Old Scratch had physically fought before the devil bested her. . John Walker was greedy and rotting from the inside by his greedy of money. The story proper opens in 1727. One story holds that the horse galloped with him back to the old Indian fortress, where the two disappeared in a bolt of lightning.

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The Devil and Tom Walker Literary Devices Storyboard

the devil and tom walker literary devices

Like the trees the leaves are beautiful but the trunks are rotten. Tom Walker can be seen as an example of this in this story. The Devil and Tom Walker, Bervely Ann Chin, Denny, McGraw Hill. With this in mind, we are then introduced to Tom Walker and his wife. He also includes a good bit of satire, especially about merchants and bankers. One hot afternoon, Tom, wearing a silk morning gown, is in the counting house foreclosing the mortgage of the land jobber, a ruined investor in land, who begs for a few more months more to pay Tom back. It is also said that the devil took part in hiding and guarding the treasure, and it was never able to be found.

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The Devil and Tom Walker Study Guide

the devil and tom walker literary devices

The trees are a big symbol of the people of the town. Kidd never enjoyed his wealth, however, for he was arrested in Boston soon after burying it and later executed in England for his crimes. His writing eventually earned him fame and status, especially after his publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. They will have an absolute blast and master the words by the end. So the devil whisks Tom onto the back of his black horse, which gallops away in the midst of a thunderstorm. Trees are the people of the town and they symbolize how greed is rotting them from the inside just like the trees are rotting from the inside. Such is the end of Tom Walker and his ill-gotten wealth, though it is said to this day that he continues to haunt on horseback the old Indian fort in the swamp, still wearing his morning gown.

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What literary devices were used in the devil and tom walker?

the devil and tom walker literary devices

Irving studied law before becoming interested in historical writing and short fiction. Also notice how Irving describes the swamp. This suggests that even people go to church and are bad outside of church they're are hypocrites and that won't help them. This time, she never returns Tom misses the silver more than his wife. He begins, therefore, to take measures to cheat the devil of his due: he becomes a churchgoer zealous in proportion to his sinfulness, he judges his neighbors severely, and he revives discussion of persecuting the Quakers and Anabaptists as heretics. Before the story of Tom Walker begins, the narrator sets the scene by telling us about the pirate Captain Kidd, who long ago buried his ill-gotten treasure in a dismal swamp not far from Boston, Massachusetts.


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What rhetorical and literary devices are used throughout "The Devil and Tom Walker"?

the devil and tom walker literary devices

There he decides to rest, but as he idly pokes with his staff into the earth he finds an old skull, which he kicks to shake the dirt from it. He also buys a carriage and two horses, all of which he lets fall into poor condition. With regard to symbolism, we can look to Tom's wealth, obtained through a deal with Imagery abounds in this tale, and the horse is another good example here. Give them a list of types of figurative language to find, and have them create a storyboard that depicts and explains the use of each literary element in the story! He goes to church every week, he sings loudly, and he thinks that is he prays and sings loudly that the devil won't get him bu when he leaves he is a terrible person so the devil gets him. He soon becomes a rich man, building an ostentatiously vast home he never finishes or even furnishes out of tightfistedness. This means that Deacon Peabody is thriving on the outside but rotting in the inside. Tom Walker is a miserly, outrageously greedy man, who lives near the swamp with his nagging, scolding, just as greedy, and abusive wife.

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The Devil and Tom Walker Themes

the devil and tom walker literary devices

The swamp was not a bright place to be in, it was dark during the day and especially at night. He also carries Bibles with him at all times—one in his coat pocket, one on his counting house desk—to ward off Old Scratch. Irving incorporates all of these real-world events in his story to suggest how human depravity, greed, economic scarcity, and religious hypocrisy conspire to lead human beings into temptation, sin, and damnation. All the nearby trees are similarly marked with the names of great men from the colony, including the one Tom is sitting on, which bears the name of Crowninshield, a mighty man rich from buccaneering who, the devil tells Tom, is ready to burn. More to the Story. Tom consoles himself for the loss of his silver with the happier fact of the loss of his wife, and even feels grateful to the devil for wrestling her down to death and damnation.

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