The Devil And Tom Walker And Rip Van Winkle Compare And Contrast Essay

Journalist Linda Ellerbee, once stated, "People are pretty much alike. It 's only that our differences are more susceptible to definition than our similarities." People do not realize how similar they are until they determine what they have in common. We can see that people accept our differences because our differences make us who we are. Linda Ellerbee 's statement reminded me of the main characters in the stories "The Devil and Tom Walker" and "Rip Van Winkle". Tom and Rip are two different people with the same personalities, characteristics, and lifestyles. Even though, Tom and Rip went through different situations, they still can relate to each other. In the "The Devil and Tom Walker" and "Rip Van Winkle" we see that the author Washington …show more content…
Tom 's wife is known as a nagging wife, "Her words often heard in wordy warfare . . ." Similarly, Rip 's wife is also known as a nagging wife because she "kept continually dinning in his ears." The similarity of the female protagonist is that they are both nagging, but also they are abusive to their husbands. Tom 's wife was abusive to her husband. "Tom 's wife was a tall termagant, fierce of temper, loud of tongue, and strong of arm." Similarly, Rip 's wife was also abusive to her husband, "A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects, be considered a tolerable blessing." The female protagonist are both nagging and abusive to their husbands. Washington Irving must have written the female protagonist in his stories to be nagging and abusive because he knew women in the village that were the same characteristics to their …show more content…
The mystical character that Tom meets has a certain appearance, "He had a stock of coarse black hair, that stood out from his head in all directions, and bore an ax on his shoulder." Similarly, the mystical character that Rip meets has a similar appearance, "He was short square-built old fellow, with thick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard. He bore on his shoulder a stout keg full with liquor." In the stories, the mystical characters also have another similarity. The mystical character that Tom meets wants him to do a job, "All these were under his command . . . that none could find them but such as propitiated his favor." The Devil wanted Tom to sell his soul to him and become a loan shark. Similarly, the mystical character that Rip meets also desires for Rip to do a job, "He bore on his shoulder a stout keg . . . Rip to approach him to assist him with the load." The author, Washington Irving wrote about the mystical characters because he would go to the boat pier and listen to the stories of the Dutch sailors. Hendrick Hudson was a Dutch explorer and the Devil appeared in Dutch