The Devil and Tom Walker(revised)

The Devil and Tom Walker

In “The Devil and Tom Walker”, the tone influences the characterization through point of view. When Tom becomes a usurper, it shows how he deals with people when he lends money because “in proportion to the distress of the applicant was the hardness of his terms. He accumulated bonds and mortgages; gradually squeezed his customers closer and closer, and sent them at length dry as a sponge, from his door” (243). This quote shows that Tom Walker is still greedy even when he has more money. The 3rd person-limited point of view shows us the faults and flaws of Tom Walker, which is his greed. When Tom starts to feel anxious about fulfilling his end of the bargain with the Devil, he thinks “with regret on the bargain he had made with his black friend, and set his wits to work to cheat him out of the conditions. He became, therefore, all of a sudden, a violent churchgoer” (Irving, 243). This quote shows that Tom regrets the deal he made with the Devil and he tries to cheat him by being a churchgoer in that the Devil is afraid of God. This shows him as a hypocrite because he persecutes the Quakers and the Anabaptists just like the Devil, even though he is trying to cheat the Devil and get away from him. In conclusion, in The Devil and Tom Walker, characterization is influenced by tone through the point of view.

Todays chapel speaker was pretty radical. it felt like he stuck spear through my heart when he said that we all "tear" our Bibles and have our own versions. guess we all need to straighten out our life, huh?