The Devil and Tom Walker

           I can infer from this text that Tom has a great amount of integrity because he refused to become a slave trader. The author indirectly told me this from the text because the narrator said "This, however, Tom resolutely refused; he was bad enough in all conscience; but the devil himself could not tempt him to turn slave dealer". Although the narrator did not just come out and say he has integrity, I know this because he has to have integrity to turn down the most popular way for the white man to get free labor or better known as slaves. If the "devil himself" cannot make him become a slave trader then he feels very strongly about it and this shows his integrity.                                                                                                                                         That brings me into my next inference. I can infer that Tom is arrogant because he thinks his sins are better than the next person's. The author indirectly told me this by saying "Tom was rigid in religious, as in money matters; he was stern supervisor and censurer of his neighbours, and seemed to think every sin entered up to their account became a credit on his own side of the the page". This means that he is arrogant because he feels that he is better than everyone else because his sins are not as bad as the next person's. He also feels that everything bad they are doing makes him look better, but in reality he is just as bad.                              By using the same quote I used in the previous paragraph, I can infer that Tom is in denial because  thinks that his sins are better than all of his peers in his neighborhood, he is not seeing that all sins are bad sins. Tom is not making taking responsibility for what he does. Its very in denial to think that what you are doing is okay when you are doing equal wrong.                                                                                                           The theme of this story is Greed. I chose this because in the story Tom is fighting for wealth and power and not considering others and scamming people out of money and ends up being captured by the devil. When he is captured he was caught of guard and not ready to face his sins. So I think this story hold a valuable lesson that you shouldn't be selfish or greedy because you can still end up with nothing.