Essay on Rip Van Winkle For many generations, people around the world have read the short story of Rip Van Winkle, whether it was in school or just have a passion for reading. The story was originally published in a book called “The sketch Book” written by American author Washington Irving. The story itself takes place around a small village near the Hudson River in a time around the American Revolution era where Great Britain still had control of the colonies. Irving uses effective writing to show the reader as much detail as possible to understand where and what is going on especially during the transitioning periods. The theme of this story could be about depression as described by certain topics that the main character experiences. The …show more content…
“Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only alternative to…... was to take gun in hand, and stroll away into the woods.” (33) This meant that he was thinking of ending his life. Irving once again did not explicitly write it. Van winkle goes to the Kaatskill Mountains, described as very seclude and large. He does not kill himself entirely but as the story went he fell asleep for twenty years. That could be implied that he just wanted to sleep all his problems away. When he wakes up, it is a new start as most of the people he knew have died in the revolutionary war or have grown old just as he did. The true relief that Van winkle felt was when he finds out that Dame Van Winkle has already passed away and will no longer cause him grief. Irving describes Van winkles new start in a way that the reader can understand better by including the revolutionary war aftermaths. Before Rip van winkle slept for twenty years, it was a time that Great Britain dictated all life in the colonies. This was symbolism for grief and frustration. When Rip Van Winkle wakes up there is no longer a British rule but a United States. In the new United States its expresses happiness in its tone just as Van Winkles new life
Throughout quarter three, our class has read four short stories, each one portraying human behaviors. I am comparing and contrasting two characters from “Miss. Brill” by Katherine Mansfield and “The Destructors” by Graham Greene. Miss. Brill and Old Misery or Mr. Thomas have many similarities and differences including the internal forces that affect them and the external forces that make them who they are.
Irving, Washington. “Rip Van Winkle.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Bayn. New York: Norton & Company, 1999.
A common theme among many literary works set during the depression era is alienation. In these works of fiction characters often become isolated which cause them to be alienated by society as well as their family. In the short stories such as “To Set Our House in Order” by Margret Laurence and “The Lamp at Noon” by Sinclair Ross, we see characters that face these conditions. As a result the authors address the theme of alienation in similar ways, yet develop it in their own unique methods.
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.
Set in the farmlands of the Salinas Valley in California, "Of Mice And Men" is based on the 1930's Great Depression. This novel shows the struggle of two migrant workers, George Milton and Lennie Small in fulfilling the 'American dream'. The dream shared by many of owing "a little house and a couple of acres". From the onset of the novel, it becomes crystal clear that Lennie is heavily reliant on his companion, George. What's more, Steinbeck portrays the two by juxtaposing them to a father and son figure. In this assessment, I plan to clearly deconstruct and explore some of the ways Steinbeck leads up to George's final decision to shoot Lennie.
During the process of growing up, we are taught to believe that life is relatively colorful and rich; however, if this view is right, how can we explain why literature illustrates the negative and painful feeling of life? Thus, sorrow is inescapable; as it increase one cannot hide it. From the moment we are born into the world, people suffer from different kinds of sorrow. Even though we believe there are so many happy things around us, these things are heartbreaking. The poems “Tips from My Father” by Carol Ann Davis, “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, and “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop convey the sorrow about growing up, about sorrowful pretending, and even about life itself.
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
Rip Van Winkle is a story written by Washington Irving. This was a story mainly about a lazy man who did not want to do any type of work, at home or at work. He was said to be useless on his farm, his land and property falling to pieces. Irving says, “The great error in Rip’s composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor”(p. 156 1st paragraph), which was just one of Irving’s many uses of inflated language. Madame Van Winkle would always nag on Rip constantly, to do work around the house and possibly even help to raise their children.
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.
Have you ever imagined being asleep in the forest for twenty years, coming back home and not knowing what has gone on all those years of your absence? Rip Van Winkle went through that, and had to come back home and face some real changes. The author Washington Irving has some interesting characters whom he puts in his short stories. Irving puts some characters in his short stories to reflect on some of his life. For example, Irving has similarities between Rip Van Winkle being asleep in the forest 20 years and Irving was in Europe for seventeen writing short stories and being the governor’s aid and military secretary. These two situations are similar, because they both didn’t know what they were going to come back too and were gone for such a long period of time. Irving does put some of his own life into his short stories and with a reason for his self-reflective works.
These three short stories have many similarities to each other and to the author, Irving’s, life. As I explored deeper into these short stories, I found out that many doors are opened in these few pages of text. Many revelations and understanding has come from exploring deeper into each and every one of these three short stories by Irving. “Rip Van Winkle”, “Pelayo and the Merchant’s Daughter”, and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” have all helped me laugh and I have enjoyed diving into them and discovering a whole world of short stories.
When I was younger the world was such an innocent, delightful place. People were kind, and always willing to help. As I have grown I have found that my views of the world and the people in it have changed; I don 't find it to be as innocent or delightful. I have slowly become to notice the wicked around me. Nathaniel Hawthorne 's "Young Goodman Brown" and Washington Irving 's "Rip Van Winkle" both convey changes in their views of the people and world around them.
Washington Irving's, "Rip Van Winkle" presented a tale of a "dreamer." Rip Van Winkle was a family man
Rip Van Winkle tells the story of a man who, on a trek into the Kaatskill mountains, mysteriously sleeps away twenty years of his life during the Revolutionary War. When he returns home, he finds that things have dramatically changed; King George no longer has control over the colonies, and many of his friends have either died or left town. At this point, the story reaches its climax, where Van Winkle realizes that his life may be forever changed.