The Devil and Tom Walker Test

Tom Walker might best be described as –

• Beaten down by bad luck

• Basically kind but misunderstood

• Crafty but very lazy

• Stingy and cruel

Tom Walker’s wife might be described as –

• Generous and loved by her neighbors

• Kind toward her husband, but cruel to others

• A fierce shrew, always nagging and yelling

• Yearning for companionship

Tom’s wife decides to go into the forest because she

• Wants to escape from Tom’s unkindness

• Decides to make her own deal with the devil

• Gets lost on her way to the market

• Wants to pick some herbs and wild mushrooms for their meager meal

In this story the woods are used to symbolize

• Evil

• Goodness

• Isolation

• Greed

Which of the following phrases is an example of Irving’s use of humor?

• A. “Tom consoled himself for the loss of his property, with the loss of his wife, for he was a man of fortitude.”

• B. “He knows how to play his cards when pretty sure of his game.”

• C. “He insisted that the money found through his means should be employed in his service.”

• D. “You shall extort bonds, foreclose mortgages, drive the merchants to bankruptcy—”

What does Irving use to symbolize hypocrisy and hidden evil?

• The devil’s deal with Tom

• Mrs. Walker’s heart and liver, wrapped in the checked apron

• The flourishing trees that are rotten to the core

• The Walker’s silver teapot and spoons

What feeling does Irving want to arouse with the setting of his story?

• Anger

• Foreboding

• Hope

• Optimism

Which feelings are created by the words, “They lived in a forlorn-looking house that stood alone and had an air of starvation”?

• Isolation and miserliness

• Independence and destitution

• Grief and poverty

• Friendliness and generosity

Which of the following items best contributes to the story’s mood?

• “The swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks…which made it dark at noonday.”

• “…stepping from tuft to tuft of rushes and roots…”

• “At length he arrived at a firm piece of ground, which ran like a peninsula into the deep bosom of the swamp.”

• “Nothing remained of the old Indian fort but a few embankments, gradually sinking to the level of the surrounding earth.”

Which of the following actions foreshadows Tom’s fate?

• The black man cut down the tree bearing the name Crowninshield for burning.

• Tom found the black print of a finger burned into his forehead

• Tom found a heart and liver tied up in his wife’s apron

• The Indians were exterminated by “white savages”