Transcript The Devil and Tom Walker

The Devil and Tom Walker
By Washington Irving
Washington Irving
• The youngest and not too well educated son
of a pious hardware importer and his
amiable wife from New York City.
• He had a genius for inventing comic
fictional narrators.
• In 1815, he was sent off by his father to
Liverpool, England, to look after a failing
overseas branch of the family business.
Washington Irving
• He found the business beyond repair, but loved the
British literary scene and stayed abroad for
seventeen years.
• He was particularly attracted to the works of
Romantic novelist, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832),
who gave Irving advice that was to make his
reputation.
• Scott told the younger writer to read the German
Romantics and find inspiration in folklore and legends.
Washington Irving
• In 1817, Irving began to write the first drafts of stories
based on German folk tales.
• These were narrated by one of Irving’s comic voices, a
character he created called Geoffry Crayon.
• Irving gave his country its first international literary
celebrity.
• Today we remember Irving for Rip van Winkle, who slept
through the American Revolution, and the Headless
Horseman, who plagued the lovelorn Yankee
schoolteacher, Ichabod Crane in the dreamy glen of Sleepy
Hollow, in New York’s lush Hudson Valley.
The Devil and Tom Walker
• Setting: New England in the early 1700s
• A narrator relates a story he has heard about
a local man’s dealings with the devil.
• The narrator never claims that the stories
are true, only that they are widely believed.
• According to local legend, a treasure is
buried in dark grove on an inlet outside of
Boston.
The Devil and Tom Walker
• It is said that Kidd the Pirate left the
treasure there under a gigantic tree and the
devil himself “presided at the hiding of the
money, and took it under his guardianship.”
• Since the pirate Kidd was hanged, no one
has disturbed the treasure or challenged the
devil’s right to it.
Historical context
• At the time Washington Irving wrote “The Devil
and Tom Walker,” in 1824, the US was a new and
growing country.
• As the land was populated by various groups of
European immigrants, a uniquely American
culture slowly formed as the traditions of many
different groups merged and new traditions,
brought on by circumstances emerged.
Historical Context
• In literature, writers such as Washington
Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen
Poe, James Fennimore Cooper, and Ralph
Waldo Emerson published works that
embodied concepts of freedom, religious
piety, and independence that characterized
the country.
Historical Context
• By 1800, NYC was the largest city in the US, but
most of the west remained wild and unexplored.
• In 1826, the American Temperance Society was
founded, giving a voice to those who were
intolerant of alcohol consumption of any sort.
• In 1828, Andrew Jackson, a man known for his
efforts to displace many native American tribes,
causing their widespread starvation and death, was
elected president.
Historical Context
• New arrivals to the country, however, were
uplifted by America’s perceived spirit of
Romanticism and humanitarianism.
• Irving embraced this feeling of Romanticism in
fiction, writing long, descriptive passages about
landscapes and relating the stories of hardworking
immigrants who carved out a good living for their
families.
Historical Context
• In the North, these ideas came to include the belief that
slavery was immoral, and tension between the North and
South over this and other issues began to rise.
• Much of the literature of this period, like the novels of
James Fennimore Cooper, were romantic tales of
adventures of common men, often concluding with strong
morals outlining Puritan ideals of good and evil.
• “The Devil and Tom Walker,” in which Tom Walker, a
corrupt individual who gets his come-uppance at the hands
of the devil, typifies the literature of this era.
The Devil and Tom Walker - Style
• Point of View
• Narrated by Geoffrey Crayon, a fictional character created by Irving.
• The first person narration adds to the feeling the reader has of being told a
story in the oral tradition.
• Allegory
• Many folktales are allegories
• In allegories, characters and actions are symbolic of larger conditions of
human nature.
• The character of Old Scratch personifies evil or temptation.
• Tom Walker, an unscrupulous money-lender, makes a pact with the devil
and only later professes religious beliefs.
• Through these actions, Tom represents hypocrisy, which Irving shows
will be punished.
• Setting
• Set in New England area near Boston in the early eighteenth century
The Devil and Tom Walker: Themes
• Greed
• Greed is one of the most important themes of “The
Devil and Tom Walker.”
• Hypocrisy is evident throughout.
• Moral Corruption: Though Tom Walker is presented as
an individual who has always been morally corrupt, the
action of “The Devil and Tom Walker” presents how
moral corruption breeds more moral corruption,
escalating to the greatest corruption of all, a pact with
the devil.
Vocabulary
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prevalent: adj.; widely existing; frequent
stagnant: adj.; not flowing or moving
precarious: adj.; uncertain; insecure; risky
impregnable: adj.; impossible to capture or enter by force.
melancholy: adj.; sad; gloomy
obliterate: v.; erase or destroy
avarice: n.; greed
resolute: adj.; determined; resolved; unwavering
parsimony: n.; stinginess
superfluous: adj.; more than is needed or wanted; useless
The Devil and Tom Walker
• Mood
• The overall feeling or atmosphere of a story, play or
poem.
• Mood is intangible.
• To identify the mood, focus on the setting, paying close
attention to the details of time and place.
• How does the setting make you feel?
• Look carefully at writer’s word choice: Is a tree budding or
rotting?
• Consider the plot: Does it end happily, or does it present a
bitter or tragic outlook on life?
Mood
• The mood of most stories can be identifies
with one or two adjectives: gloomy,
romantic, threatening, etc.
• Even though you may sense several moods
in some stories, one dominant feeling
(humor in the midst of horror, for example)
will usually prevail.
Reading Skill: Making Predictions
• When you make an inference about a text, you
make an educated guess based on clues in the text
and on your own background knowledge and
experience.
• A prediction is a special type of inference – an
educated guess about what will happen later.
• Not all predictions will turn out to be accurate, and
adjusting them is an essential part of active
reading.
Reading Skill: Making Predictions
• As you read, take notes to identify a clue
that suggests or foreshadows what may
happen further along in the story.
• Then make a prediction based on the clue.
• Later, note what actually happens.
• How often did the writer surprise you?