The+Devil+and+Tom+Walker

Many ideas make up the whole concept of Romanticism, and while it places imagination over reason, it entails a way of thinking that is both provocative and innovative. As the beginning of the 19th century approached, several artists, musicians, and authors began to draw away from the uniformity of logic that permeated Europe and America during the 18th, and they embraced the imagination in their own minds instead of the standard opinions that were accepted by their society. Abandoning the effort to satiate intellect, they started to incorporate other literary devices that stimulated universal emotions such as terror, shock, romance, and humor. Although reason wasn’t completely obliterated by this new movement, it became less of a factor in many of the artistic works created at this time, and creativity was thrown more abundantly into the mix. One of the renovated stories written when Romanticism influenced world cultures was Washington Irving’s __The Devil and Tom Walker__.  The story, __The Devil and Tom Walker__, by Washington Irving is about a poor man named Tom Walker and how he sells his soul to the devil for tangible riches. He first gets his opportunity to wealth when he passes through the remains of a once-mighty Indian fortress and happens to come across a large black man with red eyes who is forthright in confessing his identity as the devil. He offers Tom hidden treasure in exchange for his soul, but Tom doesn’t take the deal right away because his wife would want him to do that. After she attempts to make the deal herself and gets killed, though, he agrees to the devil’s terms and sells his soul, and with the money he receives, he becomes a moneylender. A while after he acquires this fortune, though, he remember the terms of their bargain, and although he tries to become holy and avoid the consequences, one day the devil arrives and takes what is his. That’s the basic plot of the tale of __The Devil and Tom Walker__, and sadly, the protagonist does not have a happy ending.  __The Devil and Tom Walker__, while written at a different time, still addresses various flaws in human nature that exist today through the situations that Tom goes through. The fact that the devil offers him to be a moneylender right after Tom refuses to sell slaves shows how malevolent trapping people in debt for personal gain really is. If people just learned how bad money lending actually is, they could have avoided getting swindled by bank loans and never entered the recession the world has to deal with now. Also, like Tom Walker cared more about money than his wife, the average individual places his or her career and income as a higher priority than his or her family, and that has led to a lack of parental guidance in the lives of youth, which can therefore lead them to turn to other things like drugs or alcohol for security instead. Tom Walker gains so much material possessions in his life, but when the devil comes to claim it, it all mysteriously turns into ashes, bones, and all sorts of rubbish that has no value. Similarly, wealth can also be accumulated and mean nothing after death, and so, life must be lived for things greater than financial prosperity such as friendship, love, and self-improvement. While he has an unfortunate conclusion to his life, Tom is just a character in a book, but people who do actually exist must seek a greater purpose and aim towards the highest because they only have one life to live.