Tom Walker's Greed And The Consequences

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Tom Walker’s Greed and the Consequences By Talana brown The short story “The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irvington is a story that symbolizes the devastation effects of greed and the consequences of it. This story not only symbolizes greed but it also symbolizes evil, selfishness, religion and hypocrisy. In this story, the main character “Tom Walker” is a miser who worships money more than he does his miserly wife. A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend money, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts. Tom Walker was a greedy and selfish man who lived an immoral life of greed. Tom Walker’s shortcut through the swamp ultimately leads to his meeting with the devil, which in turn…show more content…
There is a saying, “Money is the root of all evil.” This is true if the money is obtained through ill-gotten ways. What happened to Tom Walker is symbolic of what can happen to any human consumed by greed. He or she will lose their soul to the obsession. There were many important themes present in this story that relate to choices we make and the consequences that comes with it. Money and material things do not truly satisfy a person's life or make a person happy. Tom Walker had all the money in the world and he was still a stingy cheap miserable old man. Not thinking through choices in life can cause a lifetime of regret and Tom Walker is a great example of someone whose life was ruined by his bad choices. The sad part of this story is by the time he fully understands that his choices were wrong it was too late. He didn’t think about those choices in his earlier years when he was robbing people blind. He only thought about it when he was getting old and he knew his day would be coming and even then he was still a hypocrite. He had a choice to make things right when his friend came to him and asked him for more time. But the greediness in him wouldn’t allow him to do it. Tom Walker lived and died with the consequences of his
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