washingtong irving
DESCRIPTION
american literatureTRANSCRIPT
WASHINGTONG IRVING
BIOGRAPHY He born in 1783 and named George Washington. The first American storyteller to be internationally recognized as
a man of letters. He had a wealthy family and studied law. He preferred listening to the old tales told by villagers in New
York’s Hudson Valley. Irving published witty and satiric letters in a newspaper. He had many pseudonym like William Wizard, Anthony evergreen
and Diedrich Knickerbocker. Irving went to Europe and spent 17 years in Britain, France,
Germany, Italy and Spain exploring local traditions, costoms and folklore.
LIST OF WORKS
Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle A History of New York Tales of a Traveller Tales of the Alhambra The Life of Oliver Goldsmith Salmagundi Wolfert's Roost Astoria
THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER
THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER
Tom Walker is a greedy and selfish miser of a man who cherishes money more than his equally miserly wife. They lived in a forlorn looking house, that had stood long and had an air of starvation. This is until he takes a walk in the swamp at an old Indian fortress and starts up a conversation with the Devil incarnate (referred to as "Old Scratch" in the story). "Scratch" is shown as a lumberjack chopping down trees, each with a prominent and wealthy colonialist name branded on the tree trunk. One rotted and soon to fallen tree has the name of a deacon who grew wealthy "trading" with the Indians. Another fallen trunk has that of a wealthy seaman rumored to be a pirate. Old Scratch strikes up a deal with Tom Walker: he offers the riches hidden in the swamp by Captain Kidd in exchange for Tom's soul. Tom agrees to think about it, and returns home.
Burdened with this secret, he mentions it to his wife. When he is not there, Tom's wife takes all the valuables in the house and goes to make a deal with Old Scratch. When Tom goes in search of his wife and property, all he can find of her is her heart and liver in her apron tied to a tree.Tom Walker then agrees to the deal with Old Scratch, as his wife had been abusive towards him, and he considered her death at the hand of Old Scratch a good thing. Tom agrees to become a loan shark, although Tom has "scruples" in becoming a slave trader.
Tom never tires of swindling people out of money, until he suddenly becomes fearful about the afterlife. He then starts to become fiercely dedicated to God, always keeping two Bibles at hand.When, one day, a person who had borrowed money from him and is asking for clemency blames Tom for taking his money. Tom says, "The Devil take me if I have made but a farthing!" At this time, there are three loud knocks at the door. Tom is drawn towards the black-cloaked figure and realizes, in horror, that he has left his Bibles at his desk.Tom Walker is then taken away by the Devil on the back of a black horse which rides toward the old fortress and disappears in lightning. Tom is never seen again. All his assets vanished and his house burned to the ground. His ghost haunts the site of the old fortress.
MAJOR EVENTS The pirate Kidd buried money and never got it because he
was killed; The devil watches over pirate money Tom runs into the devil at an old Indian fort; The devil tries
to make a deal with him for the Kidd treasure, and Tom declines
Tom tells his wife about the Devil, she wants him to make the deal; Tom refuses so she attempts to make the deal and is never seen again
Tom goes to look for his wife in the swamp; figuring she is dead when he finds her apron filled with a liver and heart
Tom considered the death of his wife to be good, and nice for
him; so Tom decides to go make a deal with the devil.
The devil tries to get Tom to become a slave dealer, but "the devil himself could not tempt him to turn slave trader"
Tom agrees to be an usurer, which is someone that lends money to make a profit with interest
Tom makes all his money on people that have fallen on hard times; taking mortgages and deeds to property
Tom gets old and tries to think of a way to get out of the deal with the devil, he tries to be religious; he takes religion as law and looks at his neighbours wrongs as "credits" to himself
One day Tom says the Devil take him if he made money on a particular deal, and the Devil does