‘The Devil and Tom Walker’
An exercise in critical thinking and critical writing
Jane Mattisson Ekstam
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‘The Devil and Tom Walker’
A short introduction
• By Washington Irving
• Published in 1824
• A Faustian story in which the protagonist
sells his soul to the devil in return for
wealth
• The moral of the tale is that true wealth
and value come from within
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Some ideas about how to use the story
in the university classroom
• A practice text for applying literary
theory: New Criticism; Historical
Criticism; Psychological Criticism
• Writing an essay on a selected subject
related to Irving’s story
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Some ideas about how to use the story
in the high-school classroom
Pre-reading preparation: ‘Trading spaces
with Tom Walker: Moving the Devil out of
Fourth Hour’
Brian White and Jennifer A. Haberling
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‘The Devil and Tom Walker’ - at university
CRITICAL THINKING
New Criticism
Historical Criticism
Psychological Criticism
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New Criticism
Establishing veracity
• ‘The old stories’ (paragraph 1).
Repeated twice
• ‘Is to be seen to this day’
(final paragraph)
• ‘In fact, the story has resolved
itself . . .’ (final paragraph, final
sentence)
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New Criticism
Identify conflicts/opposites:
Past vs Present
Fact vs Fiction
Piety vs Greed
Good vs Evil
Nature vs Man
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Psychological Criticism
Which of the following psychological
concepts could be usefully used in
analysing Irving’s story:
Isolation
Intellectualisation
Repression
Projection
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Denial
Reversal
Displacement
‘The Devil and Tom Walker’- at university
CRITICAL WRITING
discuss which of the three literary
theories is best suited to your interpretation of the story.
defend your chosen interpretation and
theory.
write a draft and discuss it with your
peer(s).
write the essay and discuss it with your
peer(s).
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‘Trading spaces withTom Walker: Moving the Devil
out of Fourth Hour’
How to make a difficult text accessible to
high-school pupils
White and Haberling experimented with
pre-reading preparation in order to make
the concept of ‘trading’ accessible to
their pupils.
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Trading
Critical Thinking
P. 12 of your handout (list of options to
be ranked in order of importance).
The objective is to trade the lowest
ranked options. This is done in three
groups, one after the other.
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Trading
Critical Writing
P. 16 of your handout:
Literary Letter
Response to literary Letter
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Concluding Remarks
‘The Devil and Tom Walker’ can be used
to promote critical thinking and critical
writing.
For university students, it provides an
excellent opportunity for practising
literary theory, formulating an argument
and compiling an essay that is
persuasive and based on sound critical
thinking.
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Concluding Remarks continued
For high-school pupils, ‘The Devil and
Tom Walker’ provides an excellent
opportunity for critical thinking through
pre-reading activities such as the trading
exercise implemented by White and
Haberling and their two written tasks
using literary letters.
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Jane Mattisson Ekstam
E-mail:
[email protected]
Homepage:
http://www.hkr.se/jane-mattisson
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