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Mood And Symbolism In Washington Irving's The Devil And Tom Walker

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“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm” (Churchill). Irving was a very successful writer in his time and still well known today. Washington Irving is firmly planted into the tapestry of American literature because of his use of mood and symbolism in his short story, “The Devil and Tom Walker”. Washington Irving was born in New York City in 1783. Irving had a knack for making up authors for stories he created. Under his aliases he played the role of a satirist. For example, one of the authors he created was Jonathan Oldstyle, which was to imitate the British writers that could not accept the values of the United States. Even though writing was where his heart belonged, Irving’s father sent him to the failing family business overseas …show more content…

The Devil told Tom about how he could receive money that Kidd the Pirate buried in the swamp. Tom went home to discuss with his wife about the money, but he refused to bargain with the Devil just to make her happy. His wife was so greedy that she set off to deal with the Devil herself. Tom waited days, but never saw her again.This made Tom very happy and he felt that the Devil had done him a favor, so he decided that he would make the deal after all. He wanted to earn the money being employed by the Devil, so he became a broker that would charge insane amounts of money. Tom became a rich and powerful man over the years, but began to develop a different outlook on life as he became older. He suddenly became very Christian and was regretting ever making the deal with the Devil. Knowing that his time drew near, he started to read and carry a bible in his pocket anywhere he went, and left a very large bible on the desk where he makes the deals with the people he is taking money from. One day however, the Devil caught him off guard without his bible while Tom was closing a deal. He heard

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