EssayFrog

The Devil and Mr. Walker

Have you ever had and experience with the devil? In the short story, “The devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving Tom Walker comes face to face with the devil. Tom not only sees the devil but has to deal with him. The point of view, diction and tone of Irvings work influences the story greatly. The point of view is third person omniscient; if the point of view was to change to first person for example the story would change greatly. In first person you would not be able to see what is happening to Tom, and that’s very important in the story.

Irving’s voice in the story is very suspicious. The author uses a lot of words that darken the story, also the setting he uses makes this true. For example the setting is in a dark grove at dusk. Instead of using the words at night or forest Irving uses much stronger words. Another example is his use of the word daunted which means intimidated or frightened. The author uses this word instead of intimidated or frightened for a reason, it is to make the story more intense and interesting and it does work and make the story suspicious. This is a very important part of voice in writing.

The author’s point of view affects the story by showing what tom is doing and what’s coming towards him. In the story a few things would change, for example when the devil took tom’s wife, Tom did not know what happened until he went to the tree and found her liver and heart in the . . . read more.