Edwin Wang

Mr. Calhoun
American lit.
16/11/2015
The Devil and Tom Walker
Men are beasts. They tear apart every victim the devil feeds
them. Though they become sober and the devil remains patient
occasionally, this does not prevent the punishments they are
destined since they had first sinned.
Tom is a miserly person and has a horrible marriage which he
consoled himself with the loss of his property with the loss of his
wife (328). With the same hate and greed, Toms wife went to find
the devils treasure but died on the way. Knowing that Tom would
not take revenge for his wife, the devil left the wifes heart and liver
for Tom. According to the famous physician, Galens experiments, he
decided that the heart gives emotion, the liver gives passion, and
the brain gives reason. This indicates that the devil took away the
wifes reason (brain) and left only her emotion (heart) and passion
(liver) of avarice to tempt Tom. After the discovery, Tom felt
something like gratitude towards the black woodman, which can
be explained as Tom thanking the devil to remove his nuisance and
tempt his greed. Moreover, Tom grew more interested in evil deeds
by his use of word eagerness and further acquaintance (328). In
other words, Eve had eaten from the forbidden tree while Adam
picked up the poisonous fruit that did not look as desirable before.
Tom agrees to be a bondsman who gives no mercy to the ones
who owe him. In order to attract more prey, he acts like a friend in
need to the desperate merchants and tradesmen who were driven
to raise money by all means. After that, Tom squeezed his
customer closer and closer and made sure they leave dry as
sponge from his door (329). Though Tom remains as human as time
gone pass, his soul becomes a ruthless creature craving for gold. In
fact, the story described how you can hear the souls of the poor

debtors he was squeezing (330). The image proves how his nature
has changed from a human being to a monster concerning only his
wealth.
The devil grew impatient. In a nice afternoon came three loud
knocks when Tom states the devil take me, if I have made a
farthing! (331). Despite he had realized his sin and prayed for
Gods mercy in the weekends, nothing stops the devil from taking
him to hell. However, if Tom resisted all his evil desires including the
hatred toward his wife, greed, and dishonesty, nothing starts the
devil from taking him to hell. Unfortunately, Tom accepted the deal
like poor Adam compromised with the serpent.
The Walkers proved that men (and women) will sin. Though the
devil may not take the sinners right away, they will be damned
regardless. Their endings are not resulted from any other factors
besides their own nature.