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Describe Tom's house in "The Devil and Tom Walker."
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Tom Walker's house is described as forlorn and starving, reflecting the miserly and isolated nature of its occupants. It stands alone with a few barren trees and never has a fire in the hearth, symbolizing the coldness within. Despite acquiring wealth through a deal with the devil, Tom's new house remains unfinished and unfurnished due to his stinginess. The property is neglected, with a starving horse and barren fields, embodying the moral decay of Tom and his wife.
Tom Walker and his equally miserly wife live in a house in New England that "stood alone and had a look of starvation." This "forlorn-looking" building is surrounded by a few scrawny, sterile trees and never has a fire lit in its hearth. It embodies the very isolated and unkind spirit that is possessed by its occupants, and, thus, is never visited by anyone. It is for this reason that "the house and its inmates had altogether a bad name."
Despite Tom's greed and his great desire for wealth, his anxiety after he sells his soul to Old Scratch in exchange for riches prevents him from enjoying his new status in life. His new house is described as "ostentatious" and he sets up a successful counting house in Boston, but his mind is tortured by fear that the devil will come any day to collect on his bargain. Indeed, this...
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exact thing happens, and Tom is swept away by a black man on horseback who rides off into a thunderstorm. With Tom's soul stolen away, his possessions dissolve into cinders and wood chips, and his house burns to the ground. His greed ultimately leaves him with nothing.
At the beginning of the story, Tom's house is described as a "forlorn looking house that stood alone and had the look of starvation". Because of the stinginess and mistrust of both Tom and his wife, the house was as bad inside as it was out. Tom and his wife never trusted each other, they fought often, and neglected their animals. Their horse is pitifully described as having ribs sticking out, given barely enough food to survive. After Tom makes a deal with the devil, he builds a new, ostentatious home but never finishes it or furnishes it completely because he is too miserly. He still starves his horses and never takes care of his new possessions because that would cost money.
In "The Devil and Tom Walker," describe Tom's first house and property.
Tom's story suggests that his life is modeled on those who imagine a "get-rich-quick" strategy will make up for a life of poor habits. It isn't even clear what Tom's job is, if he even has one; he appears only to have a pitiable house and a poorly-kept property.
Tom's house is described as "forlorn", meaning abandoned or sad, and surrounded by "savin trees" - which is another name for junipers, which have a habit of growing in twisted, wind-shaped ways, and are here called "emblems of sterility", perhaps also a metaphor for why Tom and his wife have no children. Tom and his wife are described as "inmates", suggesting the house is more like a jail, although perhaps it is a jail meant to keep others out rather than to keep them in, since they seem content to antagonize each other, and they never have any visitors or travelers.
The property is said to have a single, nearly-starved horse who "stalks" a field that consists of moss and stone, implying that the field is either unsuitable for farming or pasturing, or that Tom is simply too lazy to plow the stones and make something of it.
Overall, the house and property contribute to the simplistic "ugliness is bad" moral often found in relatively straightforward fables such as this one, reinforcing that Tom and his wife are corrupt and their lives and surroundings are consumed by unpleasant signs of their personal problems.
Describe Tom's house in Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker."
The home which Tom and his wife live in (in Washington Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker") matches the characters who live within it.The house is forlorn (sad). It stands by itself, nothing else around. The imagery provided states that the house "had an air of starvation," offering readers a very specific image of what the house looks like. The landscape is as sparse as the home. The house is always cold ("no smoke curled from its chimney"), and both the house and its "inmates" have a "bad name." The house is a prison. The description of Tom's house adds to the dissatisfaction he finds in life. Nothing around him, not even his home, brings him joy.
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