Influenced Styles
Throughout history, writers have used many different styles to articulate their beliefs, and each new idea seems to evolve from an outgoing style. Washington Irving, an American author who wrote the short story "The Devil and Tom Walker", was one of many to go completely against this trend in the United States during the 18th century. He helped to introduce American Romanticism to the masses, a bold move considering that the general public still idolized Puritanical or Classicist writings. The freedom to create any story imaginable helped fuel authors to completely overhaul novels, poems, and short stories, and "The Devil and Tom Walker" is a classic representation of the changes that have occurred in American literature. …show more content…
Irving never spoke about his religion to the public, but his writing style suggests that he was certainly not a Puritan. Puritans, for example, believe that everybody must aspire to be perfect, that the Devil, while real, is shunned, and have many stories consisting of a character finding his or her true pathway to God. In "The Devil and Tom Walker", these are not at all present. For one, the Devil is featured prominently, and Mr. Walker even ends up siding with the Devil: “‘The devil take me,’ said he, ‘if I have made a farthing!’ Just then there were three loud knocks at the street door. He stepped out to see who was there. A black man was holding a black horse which neighed and stamped with impatience. ‘Tom, you're come for!’ said the black fellow, gruffly” (13). This is completely different from Puritanical beliefs in that it shuns God for the Devil, which is, as aforementioned, something unheard of previously. Once again, there is detail in the descriptions and elements of nature (the horse), which combined with the personal intuition and choices of Mr. Walker, clearly reveal to the reader this is a Romantic writing. Secondly, Old Scratch, the Devil, reveals to readers his ways when he states that, "Since the red men have been exterminated by you white savages, I amuse myself by presiding at the persecutions of Quakers and Anabaptists; I am the great patron …show more content…
Puritans do not leave room for the mind to think, rather, everything is logically explained and laid out. Romantic writers like to go into great detail, as mentioned earlier, and provoke the reader to stop and dissect what is going on. One such example in "The Devil and Tom Walker” states, “ He had a wife as miserly as himself; they were so miserly that they even conspired to cheat each other. Whatever the woman could lay hands on she hid away: a hen could not cackle but she was on the alert to secure the new-laid egg. Her husband was continually prying about to detect her secret hoards, and many and fierce were the conflicts that took place about what ought to have been common property,” (2). This excerpt utilizes synonyms as well as descriptive adjectives to tell the reader about the Walker way of life. It is obviously a greedy lifestyle, and the reader’s intuition may already sense what will happen. Puritan writings have a decided lack of personal experiences; stories would not normally go into a character's mind or at least not into great detail. This Romantic work goes into great depths of structure and makes analyzing the story a straightforward task. Humans are inherently evil, and this is an idea expressed clearly in Romanticism. Puritanical ideas strictly focus on well-being of humans, and as mentioned before, the Devil is not someone that a common man aspires to become.
Throughout history, writers have used many different styles to articulate their beliefs, and each new idea seems to evolve from an outgoing style. Washington Irving, an American author who wrote the short story "The Devil and Tom Walker", was one of many to go completely against this trend in the United States during the 18th century. He helped to introduce American Romanticism to the masses, a bold move considering that the general public still idolized Puritanical or Classicist writings. The freedom to create any story imaginable helped fuel authors to completely overhaul novels, poems, and short stories, and "The Devil and Tom Walker" is a classic representation of the changes that have occurred in American literature. …show more content…
Irving never spoke about his religion to the public, but his writing style suggests that he was certainly not a Puritan. Puritans, for example, believe that everybody must aspire to be perfect, that the Devil, while real, is shunned, and have many stories consisting of a character finding his or her true pathway to God. In "The Devil and Tom Walker", these are not at all present. For one, the Devil is featured prominently, and Mr. Walker even ends up siding with the Devil: “‘The devil take me,’ said he, ‘if I have made a farthing!’ Just then there were three loud knocks at the street door. He stepped out to see who was there. A black man was holding a black horse which neighed and stamped with impatience. ‘Tom, you're come for!’ said the black fellow, gruffly” (13). This is completely different from Puritanical beliefs in that it shuns God for the Devil, which is, as aforementioned, something unheard of previously. Once again, there is detail in the descriptions and elements of nature (the horse), which combined with the personal intuition and choices of Mr. Walker, clearly reveal to the reader this is a Romantic writing. Secondly, Old Scratch, the Devil, reveals to readers his ways when he states that, "Since the red men have been exterminated by you white savages, I amuse myself by presiding at the persecutions of Quakers and Anabaptists; I am the great patron …show more content…
Puritans do not leave room for the mind to think, rather, everything is logically explained and laid out. Romantic writers like to go into great detail, as mentioned earlier, and provoke the reader to stop and dissect what is going on. One such example in "The Devil and Tom Walker” states, “ He had a wife as miserly as himself; they were so miserly that they even conspired to cheat each other. Whatever the woman could lay hands on she hid away: a hen could not cackle but she was on the alert to secure the new-laid egg. Her husband was continually prying about to detect her secret hoards, and many and fierce were the conflicts that took place about what ought to have been common property,” (2). This excerpt utilizes synonyms as well as descriptive adjectives to tell the reader about the Walker way of life. It is obviously a greedy lifestyle, and the reader’s intuition may already sense what will happen. Puritan writings have a decided lack of personal experiences; stories would not normally go into a character's mind or at least not into great detail. This Romantic work goes into great depths of structure and makes analyzing the story a straightforward task. Humans are inherently evil, and this is an idea expressed clearly in Romanticism. Puritanical ideas strictly focus on well-being of humans, and as mentioned before, the Devil is not someone that a common man aspires to become.