The+Devil+and+Tom+Walker

The short story “The Devil and Tom Walker” shows how a man found the meaning of life. Tom Walker and his wife express no love for one another. Tom refuses to receive gold from the devil so his wife decides to take the money instead. The devil would not give Tom’s wife the money so she kept begging. The begging eventually led the devil to kill her. Tom was not deeply saddened by the death and instead happy and took the devils offer. In order to pay the devil back Tom had to travel to Boston and become a merchant and take all the money he could. Tom became rich from the mortgage business and built a large mansion. But as Tom grew older he felt guilty for his bad doings and soon became very religious. Tom was a greedy young fellow. As Tom grew older he found the meaning of life. He knew a man could not live living in debt so he could be wealthy. Tom seeks revenge on the devil for what he has done. Tom feels this is the only way to get back. Tom knows that one day the devil will take his life. One day Tom does tell the devil to tke him away but says it in a sarcastic way but the devil comes to take him away. Tom never lived life the way he really wanted to and wasn’t ready to die.

Tom Walker doesn't have a very positive outlook on life, and neither does his wife. Both of them focus on what they don't have and what they're missing out on, instead of realizing what they have. They seem more concerned about all the material things they want, and whenever one of them gets ahold of something, they hide it from the other. It seems that they feel that material items and being wealthy will make them happy, but in the end of the story, Tom Walker has all this money and nice things, but they don't mean a thing, because he ended up going to hell. Was all that money and stuff really worth spending an enternity in hell? Maybe if Tom and his wife had taken the time to try and get along with one another, life would have been more plesant. There was no love between the two of them at all, and it makes you wonder why they even got married in the first place. He didn't even worry about his wife when she never came home after trying to get the money from the Devil. The only reason he went looking for her was to find the items she had taken with her, because they were the only valubal things they owned. After Tom made that deal with the Devil, all he did was making people miserable, and all the while he was growing richer off other people's misfortunes. He was even going to take away the home of his best friend and leave him and his family poor and homeless. But he was getting all this money, and he had a big house filled with nice things, which appaently were the only things that mattered to him.

When he realized what was going to happen to him when it was time for him to die, he decided that he didn't want to be damned for eternity and tried to "save his soul" from the Devil and cheat his way out of their bargan. Needless to say, it didn't work. That bargan between Tom and the Devil left Tom to grow old and alone, and Tom was only interested in his money that life just passed him by. Money, material items, in the end these things don't matter if they keep you from living your life and being with people you love. If money can't be used on something more than just yourself, and material items not shared or given to someone other than yourself, then what is the point in even having them? To be left alonw with your money and your things, and never use them to benifit more than just yourself is no way to live. Unfortunately for Tom, he didn't realize this until after he made that deal that ultimately screwed him for life.