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Themes and analysis of rip van winkle
Themes and analysis of rip van winkle
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In this classic tale Rip Van Winkle is portrayed as one who is a victim of circumstances beyond his control. A further reading may perhaps reveal a different Rip Van Winkle, one who pursues an avenue of passive resistance in response to a life which he feels is beyond his control.
Passive Resistance is usually connected with such famous people as Henry David Thoreau who developed the principal of civil disobedience. For Thoreau, the idea was to choose not to support governmental taxes and policies that he felt were wrong. This theme was later used by Mahatma Gandhi in his fight for Indian independence. In the 1960’s this method was used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to bring racial injustice to the public’s attention. In all of these cases, the men who followed the ideal of passive resistance were prepared to suffer the consequences of their actions in order to draw attention to their causes.
One can find similarities between Rip Van Winkle’s actions and the actions of those who pursue passive resistance. In Rip’s case, the "governing" authority that he was struggling with is represented by the responsibilities in his life. This is very clear when one compares his own farm to those of others at that time. He did not care for his farm as was expected of him. Rather, he pursued a life that one at the time would have considered slothful, discussing current events with his friends, befriending local children and animals and doing various favors for neighbors while his own property suffered. When confronted by his wife, his response was neither to argue nor to change his behavior. A simple silent shrug of the shoulders was all the response he offered.
In all of this, Dame Van Winkle has been portrayed as the villain. H...
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...urns 20 years later after his wife is dead, he does not take responsibility for his departure. Instead he concocts a story showing how this situation was totally out of his control. Rather than admit that he was not able to fulfill his responsibilities or that his wife was a shrew and he could no longer tolerate it, he makes up a story about being asleep in the woods. He then returns to his previous life.
Curiously, the community and even his own daughter do not appear to seriously question his explanation. Whether this is due to their collective superstition or whether they inwardly understood his need to remove himself from a difficult marriage, it is not clear. What is clear, is that Rip Van Winkle failed to support his family and then abandoned them. He chose a path of flawed passive resistance which did not accept the consequences of his actions.
...y shocks most of people who hear and see it, encouraging and moving others who also suffer. In instance, Elena screamed at Longoria to show she would not give them any information about resistances and Antonio when Longoria was about to killing her (Tobar 148). Elena sacrificed her life to protect Antonio and her friends who fought against the Guatemalan government without using any violence when she faced Longoria who tried to kill her. She showed it was important not to be daunted by fear and to keep fighting for justice. Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi advocated nonviolent resistance as a means of seeking peace and gaining independence for the Republic of India from Britain. Justice should be served by means in the name of justice. Nonviolent resistance is a powerful way to fight against the cycle of violence and work towards the realization of a peaceful world.
After reading the story of Rip Van Wrinkle, the first expression I received as a message was change, and regardless of how one reacts or view circumstances, evolution will continue its natural process. In addition, when I considered how the author’s illustration of Rip Van Wrinkle need to find refuge in the time of (distress) his wife’s overwhelming nagging, I noticed how Wrinkles’ neglected to take charge of his empire; his home, children and wife, therefore, he did not confront his personal challenges to ease or eliminated his stress, instead, he walked away from his wife’s overwhelming nagging. In turn, another message the reading audience may convey is that, in order to witness radical change, sometimes interest and or participation is
Irving, Washington. “Rip Van Winkle.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Bayn. New York: Norton & Company, 1999.
For instance, in “The Diary of Anne Frank” Anne uses her diary to increase her family’s moral and to oppose the Nazis. As she writes about her daily life and attitude towards the Nazis, we see how she resisted by carrying on the legacy of her family with her writing.The Nazis policy was not just to remove the people, but to remove the memory of those people, and the very memories those people might have within them. Her diary is brought the people faith and optimism. People in the concentration camps used their talents such as acting or playing the piano to make people forget the hunger and misery and long for another concert. Meanwhile for the artists this was a revolt against the regime. Passive resistance points towards a future: by bearing its meaning is like a sealed envelope into in another era and redirects the world away from violence. Some may argue that you are doing nothing for the better of the Jewish people by hiding and are not helping the ultimate cause or end goal, but the people are making more of a difference preserving their culture by teaching and practicing it than killing five out of ten thousand people and then dying from being shot. The active resistors are not making that much of a difference in their army by killing a couple. By teaching, people are renewing their faith they
When contrasting violent and non-violent forms of civil disobedience, one can look at the contrasting doctrines of civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Martin Luther King’s tactics of protest involved non-violent passive resistance to racial injustice. He once said, “unearned suffering is redemptive. Suffering,...
Iago has everyone fooled into believing that he is a noble honest man. Without this
In “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving he writes about a simple man, Rip Van Winkle, who does just enough to get by in life. He lives in a village by the catskill mountains, and is loved by everyone in the village. He is an easy going man, who spends most of his days at the village inn talking with his neighbors, fishing all day, and wandering the mountains with his dog to refuge from his wife the thorn on his side. On one of his trips to the mountains Rip Van Winkle stumbles upon a group of men who offer him a drink, and that drink changes everything for Van Winkle. He later wakes up, twenty years later, and returns to his village were he notices nothing is the same from when he left. He learns that King George III is no longer in charge,
Washington Irving wrote Rip Van Winkle with the American people in mind. At this time society was changing drastically. America was attempting to go through a struggle with forming their own identity. America was wanting to have an identity that would set them free from English culture and rule. Irving uses his main character, Rip Van Winkle, to symbolize America. Rip goes through the same struggles that America was going through at this time before and after the Revolution. Irving uses such great symbolism in this story to describe the changes that American society went through. This story covers a wide variety of time periods including: America before English rule, early American colonies under English rule, and America after the Revolutionary War.
* delivery of a football through the air (pass, punt, kickoff, field goal, extra point)
Life is full of experiences and exploration. In life everyone have something that has changed the way they recognize things. Most things change a person’s perception because of the experience they had in the past. I never imagined that my life would ever change. Being born in a different country and end up in a different place could be very hard and frustrating.
... to a miscommunication between the Captain and his soldiers. If the crowd had not been in such an uproar the Boston Massacre never would have happened. With all the testimony and the deposition from the Captain, the jury made the correct decision by determining Preston innocent.
Protagonist Rip Van Winkle possesses mystical and entertaining characteristics that captivate the reader. Rip Van Winkle regards all of his neighbors with kindness continuously. He shows the depth of American values such as kindness and the love of the neighbor. Van Winkle’s great kindness is illustrated by his helping of others. On page 62, the narrator states “He inherited, however, but little of the martial character of his ancestors. I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; he was moreover a kind neighbor, and an obedient, henpecked husband,” confirming that Van Winkle is a kind person and a loving
In RIP Van Winkle, Dam Van Winkle is abusive, nagging, and sarcastic. In Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving states that “but what courage can with stand the ever-during and all besetting terrors of a woman’s tongue.” He seems to imply that he did not like women who gave their opinions and spoke their mind. It seems that Rip is going into the woods to escape his wife.
Van Winkle" depicts a story of a man longing to be free, and of the transformation that occurs to him and the
That Van Winkle is confused seems obvious and is quite understandable, but this confusion extends beyond the bizarre sequence of events encountered. When Rip notices the person that the township refers to as Rip Van Winkle, it is as though he is looking into a mirror, for this person portrays a "precise counterpoint of himself." Although Rip visually sees this other person, his examination becomes a personal reflect...