The Devil and Tom Walker
The title of the story is “The Devil
and Tom Walker”. There are three characters, tom Walker, his wife, and the
Devil. The protagonist in the story is Tom Walker. I infer that Tom W. is a
prying man because it states directly that he was prying in his wife’s things.
He is also a brave man. This statement is a direct inference because, in
paragraph five it says that while in the swamp, he was lingering about and that
anyone else would have felt unwilling to linger in the swamp alone. Another
direct statement is that Tom W. was a hard-minded fellow and not
daunted.
The second character, which is Tom W.
wife, was a miserly woman. This direct inference comes from the second paragraph
which states “he has a wife as miserly as himself; they were so miserly that
they even conspired to cheat each other. I can infer that his wife was a
secretive woman because the text says that her husband would continually pry in
her secret hoards and also whatever the woman could lay hands on she hid away.
The lady was a tall termagant, fierce of temper loud of tongue, and strong of
arm kind of woman which is stated directly. I can infer that she was used to
having things her way because of the sentence “she had probably attempted to
deal with the black man as she had been accustomed to deal with her husband.
Tom’s wife also had a fearless temper. In the text, “being of the same fearless
temper as her husband” it is being directly stated.
I infer that the “black” man in the
story is related to the devil. This indirectly comes from, “I am whom the “red”
man devoted this spot”. The author indirectly says that the black man is a mind
controller. Tom felt that “he had done him a kindness” when the black man
offered him richness and wealth for the rest of his life. I can also infer that
he is a killer and manipulates his next victims, “with his axe on his shoulder,
sauntering along the edge of the swamp”. Then later in the story, it indirectly
states that he is always up to no good; “finding Tom so squeamish on this point,
he did not insist upon it, but proposed instead that he should turn
usurer”.
