Question

How does Washington Irving’s use of the third-person omniscient narrator in "The Devil and Tom Walker" affect the meaning and development of the story? Incorporate information from the video you watched as well as textual evidence from the story. Your response should be two to three paragraphs in length.

Answer 1

In "The Devil and Tom Walker," Washington Irving describes how the devil strikes a deal with a petty and miserly man, Tom Walker, and the consequences of that deal. Irving uses a third-person omniscient point of view to tell the story. This point of view allows the author to give readers the private and intimate details about Tom’s life and character that would not have been discernable from any other point of view. For example, he describes Tom’s unhappy marriage:Her voice was often heard in wordy warfare with her husband; and his face sometimes showed signs that their conflicts were not confined to words.At the same time, Irving is able to distance himself from the story while dryly commenting on everything that happens. For example, he describes Tom’s new business:In proportion to the distress of the applicant was the hardness of his terms. He accumulated bonds and mortgages; gradually squeezed his customers closer and closer, and sent them at length, dry as a sponge, from his door.If the story was told in the first person point of view (by the protagonist Tom), the readers would get intimate but inaccurate details about the story because it would be twisted by Tom’s biases. Through the third-person omniscient point of view, the author is able to make important commentary on the hypocrisy and greed in American society.************ From Plato