The opening paragraphs of Washington Irving's The Devil and Tom Walker contain clear and condensed signs of two main ideals of American Romanticism, which glorified the individuality of man and his role as the creator of his own fate, while showing a profound admiration of nature, particularly, the nature of this wild, mysterious and uncharted continent, filled with opportunities for adventurers to seize in their personal journey.
"On one side of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove; on the opposite side the land rises abruptly from the water's edge into a high ridge, on which grow a few scattered oaks of great age and immense size. Under one of these gigantic trees, according to old stories, there was a great amount of treasure buried by Kidd the pirate."
The initial description of our anti-hero is also crucial: when we see him, later in the text, sell his soul to the devil in exchange of money, this comes as no surprise, because the author paints a very clear picture of his (and his wife's) psychological nature of extreme greed:
"...there lived near this place a meagre, miserly fellow, of the name of Tom Walker. He had a wife as miserly as himself; they were so miserly that they even conspired to cheat each other."
