The Devil And Tom Walker Greed Essay

Greed has been a vital harm, spread across the nation, for hundreds of years. Money is the main cause for greed, it is the root of all evil. As long as there is money involved, a persons mind will go blank and al that they will think about is money. Money has been a huge problem in the world for years, people think that if you have money then that makes you happy, but all it does is make you depressed. In The Devil and Tom Walker, Washington Irving uses characterization to reveal how Tom is effected and responds to the standards of fictional society. Tom Walker’s characterization causes effects on life. I believe that Tom Walker was greedy, which caused him to sell his soul to the devil. Selling his soul to the devil caused him to live a …show more content…
Tom Walker gets very upset once he realizes what he did. He tries to go to church and take back what he did, but what he doesn’t know is that there is no way to do so. Tom starts going to church religiously to try to get forgiven for selling his soul. He starts realizing that there is no possibility of that happening and he wishes that he did not sell his soul. “The best way to find yourself is to loose yourself in the service of others”. (Mahatma Gandhi) I believe that Tom Walker should have thought about what he was doing before he done it. Yeah, he got the riches but he did not have a happy life. He could have anything he wanted, but nothing he could get would make him happy. Tom responds to the characterization with emptiness in his life. He has a huge house but there is absolutely nothing on the inside. Everyone thinks that he has the perfect life, but he is actually dealing with emptiness in his life. He has absolutely nothing or nobody in his life other than money, because that is all he ever cared about.Tom covers up his emptiness with his house, but nobody has ever been in it other than Tom, so nobody knows that it is just a cover up for his life. “The more space and emptiness you can create in yourself, then you can let the rest of the world come in and fill you up”. (Jeff Bridges) Tom has the life anyone would wanton the outside, but you can’t judge a book by its cover. He is really just living in a world that will not last forever, and he gave up his old life for the life of the riches. You can’t take your possessions with you when you die.There is no purpose in worrying about having enough money to buy anything you want when it gives you nothing but emptiness. Even though it might be nice to have money, it can take over your life. It makes you loose real friends and gain fake ones that want to be your friend just because you have money and can buy them