The Devil and Tom Walker

Washington Irving wrote the Devil and Tom Walker in 1824. Irving created fictitious, stereotypical, one-dimensional characters, and put them in unrealistic situations. During this same time period the slave trade was still highly profitable in the United States. This story can be read on two levels. The first could be as a folk tale. It tells an interesting story of a man who chooses to sell his soul to the devil for riches and what happens. …

…to make the similarities painfully clear. Even the way Irving ends the story, with all of Tom Walkers’ fortune ending up worth nothing, he shows that even with a highly prestigious career a person can still be as corrupt and vile as the devil. Irving was a purveyor of social change and disguised his opinion as a fable. Which helped to make his feelings covertly known to the masses and enacted to change cultural mores.