During a person’s lifetime, he or she will have integrity and a reputation. According to Dictionary.com, reputation is the “the estimation in which a person or thing is held, especially by the community or the public generally” while integrity is the “adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.” Even in fictional stories characters have their own reputations and integrity. In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “The Devil and Tom Walker,” and The Crucible, a reader distinguishes the thoughts and perceptions of the protagonist’s of themselves and can compare them to the reputation given to them by the community. In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” a reader follows Reverend Hooper as he has begun to wear an eerie
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The community views him as someone who is close to God with the description of being “…as rigid in religious as in money matters; he was a stern supervisor and censurer of his neighbors…” (266). The reader sees the irony in this as people respect him and come to him with their problems believing he can help them when he is actually a cunning, stingy man who makes bad decisions. He is known as someone who people can trust and is an outstanding person who cares greatly about others. Even though he gives off the image that he was caring and wants to help out, Walker knows what he is up against in the back of his mind. Tom Walker realizes that “Still in spite of all this strenuous attention to forms, [he] had a lurking dread that the Devil, after all, would have his due” (266). He never forgets what exactly he believes is his doom with the Devil and it haunts him everyday. Walker knows how he could try to redeem himself, and he does actually try by being an avid churchgoer but is aware that his fate could very well send him to Hell regardless of his current actions. It occurs to him that God does know his true colors and that Tom Walker is only focusing on himself with his deal with the Devil and trying to win back his entrance into Heaven. Tom Walker also knows his true character which was greedy and selfish of all those around him. He does not even care much about his wife who was as miserly as he is. An example in the story that when his wife goes missing and Walker goes to find her, he “…[leaps] with joy, for he [recognizes] his wife’s apron, and [supposes] it to contain the household valuables” (263). This portrays the greediness that Tom Walker possesses and how he only cares about his valuables and not the well being of others. He is much more worrisome for his valuables that his wife took with her than his actual wife. He shows this by
The community views him as someone who is close to God with the description of being “…as rigid in religious as in money matters; he was a stern supervisor and censurer of his neighbors…” (266). The reader sees the irony in this as people respect him and come to him with their problems believing he can help them when he is actually a cunning, stingy man who makes bad decisions. He is known as someone who people can trust and is an outstanding person who cares greatly about others. Even though he gives off the image that he was caring and wants to help out, Walker knows what he is up against in the back of his mind. Tom Walker realizes that “Still in spite of all this strenuous attention to forms, [he] had a lurking dread that the Devil, after all, would have his due” (266). He never forgets what exactly he believes is his doom with the Devil and it haunts him everyday. Walker knows how he could try to redeem himself, and he does actually try by being an avid churchgoer but is aware that his fate could very well send him to Hell regardless of his current actions. It occurs to him that God does know his true colors and that Tom Walker is only focusing on himself with his deal with the Devil and trying to win back his entrance into Heaven. Tom Walker also knows his true character which was greedy and selfish of all those around him. He does not even care much about his wife who was as miserly as he is. An example in the story that when his wife goes missing and Walker goes to find her, he “…[leaps] with joy, for he [recognizes] his wife’s apron, and [supposes] it to contain the household valuables” (263). This portrays the greediness that Tom Walker possesses and how he only cares about his valuables and not the well being of others. He is much more worrisome for his valuables that his wife took with her than his actual wife. He shows this by