american literature

1. WASHINGTONG
IRVING

2. BIOGRAPHY
 He born in 1783 and named George Washington.
 The first American storyteller to be internationally recognized as a
man of letters.
 He had a wealthy family and studied law.
 He preferred listening to the old tales told by villagers in New York’s
Hudson Valley.
 Irving published witty and satiric letters in a newspaper.
 He had many pseudonym like William Wizard, Anthony evergreen
and Diedrich Knickerbocker.
 Irving went to Europe and spent 17 years in Britain, France,
Germany, Italy and Spain exploring local traditions, costoms and
folklore.

3. LIST OF WORKS
 Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle
 A History of New York
 Tales of a Traveller
 Tales of the Alhambra
 The Life of Oliver Goldsmith
 Salmagundi
 Wolfert's Roost
 Astoria

4. THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER

5. THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER
 Tom Walker is a greedy and selfish miser of a man who
cherishes money more than his equally miserly wife. They
lived in a forlorn looking house, that had stood long and had
an air of starvation. This is until he takes a walk in the swamp
at an old Indian fortress and starts up a conversation with the
Devil incarnate (referred to as "Old Scratch" in the story).
"Scratch" is shown as a lumberjack chopping down trees,
each with a prominent and wealthy colonialist name
branded on the tree trunk. One rotted and soon to fallen
tree has the name of a deacon who grew wealthy "trading"
with the Indians. Another fallen trunk has that of a wealthy
seaman rumored to be a pirate. Old Scratch strikes up a deal
with Tom Walker: he offers the riches hidden in the swamp by
Captain Kidd in exchange for Tom's soul. Tom agrees to think
about it, and returns home.

6. Burdened with this secret, he
mentions it to his wife. When he
is not there, Tom's wife takes all
the valuables in the house and
goes to make a deal with Old
Scratch. When Tom goes in
search of his wife and property,
all he can find of her is her heart
and liver in her apron tied to a
tree.
Tom Walker then agrees to the
deal with Old Scratch, as his wife
had been abusive towards him,
and he considered her death at
the hand of Old Scratch a good
thing. Tom agrees to become a
loan shark, although Tom has
"scruples" in becoming a slave
trader.

7. Tom never tires of swindling people out of money, until he
suddenly becomes fearful about the afterlife. He then starts to
become fiercely dedicated to God, always keeping two Bibles
at hand.
When, one day, a person who had borrowed money from him
and is asking for clemency blames Tom for taking his money.
Tom says, "The Devil take me if I have made but a farthing!" At
this time, there are three loud knocks at the door. Tom is drawn
towards the black-cloaked figure and realizes, in horror, that
he has left his Bibles at his desk.
Tom Walker is then taken away by the Devil on the back of a
black horse which rides toward the old fortress and disappears
in lightning. Tom is never seen again. All his assets vanished
and his house burned to the ground. His ghost haunts the site
of the old fortress.

8. MAJOR EVENTS
 The pirate Kidd buried money and never got it because he was
killed; The devil watches over pirate money
 Tom runs into the devil at an old Indian fort; The devil tries to
make a deal with him for the Kidd treasure, and Tom declines
 Tom tells his wife about the Devil, she wants him to make the
deal; Tom refuses so she attempts to make the deal and is
never seen again
 Tom goes to look for his wife in the swamp; figuring she is dead
when he finds her apron filled with a liver and heart
 Tom considered the death of his wife to be good, and nice for
him; so Tom decides to go make a deal with the devil.

9.  The devil tries to get Tom to become a slave dealer, but
"the devil himself could not tempt him to turn slave trader"
 Tom agrees to be an usurer, which is someone that lends
money to make a profit with interest
 Tom makes all his money on people that have fallen on
hard times; taking mortgages and deeds to property
 Tom gets old and tries to think of a way to get out of the
deal with the devil, he tries to be religious; he takes
religion as law and looks at his neighbours wrongs as
"credits" to himself
 One day Tom says the Devil take him if he made money
on a particular deal, and the Devil does