Washington+Irving

​ The Devil and Tom Walker By: Washington Irving

This story begins with a narrator explaining a local legend about a man’s encounter with the devil. He never says that the encounter was an actual event; just that it is widely believed that it did happen. According to the narrator, a treasure is buried in a dark grove outside of Boston. A pirate named Kidd buried the treasure under a huge tree. The devil himself watches over the treasure. The twist is that Kidd was hanged, so no one ever challenged the devils right to the treasure. In 1727, Tom Walker is walking in this grove taking a short cut to his home. Tom was unaware that the treasure laid nearby, so he stopped to rest by a tree outside of the remains of an old Indian fort. After digging up an old skull, a gruff voice startled him from behind. The man called himself the black woodsmen. Tom later realizes that this man is actually the devil, but in the story Tom refers to him as "Old Scratch". The devil said he would give him the money, but only under certain conditions that Tom never disclosed publicly. He then goes home and tells his wife, who is outraged that he would pass up such a fortune. She then takes it upon herself to find the devil and make a deal with him. After several trips into the woods, she becomes mad that the devil would not show himself to her. One day she gathers up their little belongings and takes them into the woods. Tom becomes worried and wanders into the forest looking for her. He finds her apron hanging in a tree; the apron contains her heart and her liver. There are footprints, and wads of hair at the base of the tree, that hint of a struggle. Now that his wife is gone, Tom is eager to strike a deal with the devil. The devil suggests that Tom becomes a slave trader, but Tom decides to become a usurer, since the treasure is based upon Tom doing the devils work. Tom does this by setting up a counting house in Boston, and gets very wealthy by cheating people out of money and charging very high interest. When Tom grew older he became nervous about his chances of getting into heaven. He begins reading the bible and goes to church every week. One night the devil showed up at Tom ’ s door during a thunderstorm and takes him to the Indian fort in the woods on a black horse. Tom is never seen again. His money and bonds are found in cinders, and his house then burns to the ground.

The theme of this story is greed. In the beginning of the story Tom is offered wealth beyond his wildest dreams, but he denies it. He doesn’t deny it because of his moral character or his belief in God. He denies the money, because he would have to share it with his wife. He is not only greedy in the regard that he would give his soul for money, but greedy due to the fact he doesn’t care that his wife died; he just cares that he now doesn’t have to share the money with her. Washington Irving writes, “Tom was not a man to stick at trifles when money was in view.” This tells the reader how, when money was involved, Tom didn’t take a situation lightly. When Tom saw money, it was almost like he put blinders on, nothing else mattered. Tom then became a moneylender where his greed continued. As a moneylender, Tom became even greedier. The narrator described him this way, “In proportion to the distress of the applicant, was the hardness of his terms.” A normal person shows more compassion to another human being when they are in distress; but the more a person needed the money, the less Tom would help them. He would use them and cheat them out of money because they had nowhere else to go. Even in the face of extreme wealth, Tom reluctantly fed his horses. He had money to buy huge houses and anything he wanted, but when it came to spending a little of it on another living being, he saw that as a nuisance. Even after all this, Tom denied his greed. When accused by a borrower that he was taking advantage of him he said, “The devil take me if I have made a farthing!” This shows how detached and blocked off Tom was. After taking advantage of a large amount of people and selling his soul to the devil, he didn’t think he was greedy. The fact he didn’t even acknowledge his greed, shows his lack of morals.

I thought that “The Devil and Tom Walker” was a very educational story. It has a theme that can be related to every day life. Greed is everywhere and in everybody. I related this story to the world. No matter where someone goes, they are going to be confronted by greed, and it comes down to your moral fortitude to overcome it. Tom shows us that he not only can’t overcome greed of others, but people like him are the main source of greed in this world. Tom was happy when his wife died, why, because he knew then that he could make more money. This example reminds me of people that are happy when their spouses die, because they get to collect the insurance money. Tom’s greed was so strong; he looked past his spouse dying and saw the money as being more important. This same scenario happens every day. Younger people marry older spouses in order to inherit their money when the spouse dies. Sometimes people even kill their spouses to get their money. Tom even went to the extent to pick a job that would allow him to take advantage of people. He became a moneylender where he charged ridicules insurance rates and mislead people. People every day choose their profession solely to make money. This is a very mild form of greed, but greed nonetheless. People are choosing money over the opportunity to follow their real dreams, or jobs that could help people. Finally, at the end Tom began to go to church. This may seem like a very noble thing to do. But Tom attended church not to better himself or to get closer to God; Tom did it in order to go to heaven. He felt bad about the deal he had made many years ago, and was nervous about where he was going to spend his afterlife. When participating in church activities, or doing projects to help others, you should be doing it for the right reasons. It should be done to better yourself, your community, or to help better others. Heaven is a place for people that did good deeds their whole life and did those deeds for the right reasons. This happens a lot in this world and should be looked at by everybody. We should make sure we go to church, or do public service for the right reasons. When you don’t, you are just being greedy. This story helped me look at myself, and when I see greed in everyday life I will think of this book.