Setting
Where does Tom first meet the devil?
What is the old indian fort?
What do you think has happened to Tom’s wife? Give evidence? (Can be explained)
What is she is dead and it is inferred by her heart and liver being tied up in the sack in the tree?
What is ironic about the men whose names were carved into the trees? What do they have in common?
What is they are rich buccaneers?
What is the mood of the story when looking at the picture before reading? Give a detail how you know. I'll take 3 boards.
What is....?
What was Tom's job for the devil?
What is a userer?
Based on the description of Tom’s house, how would you describe the atmosphere of the story?
What is insensitivity and stinginess of the owners?
Describe Tom’s wife. What type of female character is she?
What is demeaning, selfish, abusive, etc.?
What can archetypes be?
What is a character, a plot, an image, a theme, or a setting?
What mood is created by the description of the swamp?
What is eerie, haunted, gloomy, mysterious, etc.?
Daily Double: What is a topic that can be found in the short story? I will take 3 boards.
What is ....?
Why is it appropriate that the swamp be associated with an “evil spirit”?
What is there is an old Indian Fort located there where incantations have been performed?
Archetype: Based on the range of evil activity, who is this black woodsman?
Define archetype.
What is a very old, imaginative pattern that appears in literature across cultures and is repeated through the ages?
What details prove the mood the swamp makes?
What is fallen trees, alligators, old indian fort, incantations, dark in the day time, etc.?
What “generally understood” terms does the narrator refer to in Tom’s discussion with the devil?
What is Tom sold his soul to the devil?
Where does Tom end up when he is sent for at the end of the story?
What is the forest in the old indian fort?
How can you describe Tom as a character in the beginning of the story?
What is fearless?
What might the great tree, rotten at the core, symbolize?
What is individuals who sold their soul to the devil?
What is the purpose of reporting the diverse opinions about the fate of Tom’s wife?
What is to continue the eerie feeling, etc.?
Verbal Irony: What does Irving mean by calling Tom a “universal friend of the needy”?
What is Tom is "there" for his customers, but in a way to rip them off for his own self-betterment?
What legend was the Devil and Tom Walker based around that started off the short story?
What is Kidd the Pirate?
How can you describe Tom when he turns older?
What is fearful, violent churchgoer, etc.?
What is the meaning of the black fingerprint branded into Tom’s forehead?
What is the devil's possession of Tom's soul?
How does the mood change with the setting (counting house)? (What is the mood now?)
What is selfish to desperation, etc.?
What aspect of society is Irving satirizing in showing Tom’s change?
What is that people are indecisive?