Reflection Blog: The Devil and Tom vs. Rip Van Winkle

I have read a lot of weird stories in my life. I have sat and contemplated many of times what exactly it was that I had read. In all honestly, thus far in my English career I have dealt with odd and mind-boggling stories in an efficient manner. The Devil of Tom Walker started out very intriguing for me. I thought it was interesting how Tom is introduced into the story walking home through a short-cut in the woods. Washington uses very descriptive language all throughout this short-story. An example of extensive descriptive language is found early in the story. "It was full of pits and quagmires, partly covered with weeds and mosses; where the green surface often betrayed the traveller into a gulf of black smothering mud; there were also dark and stagnant pools, the abodes of the tadpole, the bull-frog, and the water snake, and where trunks of pines and hemlocks lay half drowned, half rotting, looking like alligators, sleeping in the mire", (Irving). In this quote, the author describes the scene in vivid detail. It is almost as if readers can feel and even smell the scene in which Tom is adventuring into. Washington Irving demonstrates key qualities of Romanticism writing by using nature and very descriptive detail in his work. Something that Washington exemplifies in a lot of his works is the use of a very controlling wife. Tom's wife takes initiative when her husband does not wish to search for treasure that will make them rich forever. She ends up going out and disappearing over the fact that she was money-hungry and unsatisfied with her life. Overall, I found The Devil and Tom Walker to be a weird, yet oddly intriguing piece of literature. I can see why it is very controversial for critics, seeing that it deals with a very controlling wife and excessive detail of nature.

I would say the writing style between The Devil and Tom Walker and Rip Van Winkle are strikingly similar. Which should make complete sense...seeing that they were both written by the same author and all. Both stories use extremely descriptive detail, a quality that was widely popular with authors during the Romanticism time period.

"Just then from a thicket a man came out--His legs were short and his body stout,

He looked like a Dutchman in days of yore,
With buttons behind and buttons before;
And held a keg with an iron grip,
And beckoned for help to the gazing Rip, (Irving).

The latter quote exemplifies the Romanticism qualities of Irving's Rip Van Winkle. He uses a lot of detail to put readers in the middle of the story to feel and see what the character is going through entirely in the short-story. As far as the two stories are different, I think that the first story's writing style is definitely more eerie feeling and suspicious, mainly because readers are in suspense the whole time wondering what on earth happened to Walker's wife. As far as Van Winkle is concerned, I think this stories writing style is more of a moral-teaching kind of story. The point that the author was trying to get across was probably one of do not let life pass by you too fast because you only have a determined number of years to do good, and leave your mark on the world.