"The outline for each story, although based on native history, can be found in legend and myth." Robert M. Meyers, a famous critic, said this about Washington Irving's amazing talent in writing short stories in literature. "Rip Van Winkle" is one of Washington's most famous short stories. Washington does a fantastic job in the story using the themes of martial conflict and American Revolution. Throughout the story, both seem very noticeable. "Rip Van Winkle" covers many literary elements, all of which are very noticeable to the reader. He makes them easier to point out so that the reader can have a better understanding of all the themes he covers in the story.
The characters of this story are believable and they are appropriate for the theme of the story. Dame Van Winkle is a character that is not liked throughout the story, whereas, Rip is a character that is liked by all. Therefore, it is evident that the protagonist of the short story is in fact, Rip Van Winkle. Rip shows he is a flat character during the story. "I have observed that he was a simple goodnatured man..." (Irving 155). This proves to the reader that Rip is always nice to everyone in the small village that he lives in. "Rip now resumed his old walks and habits..." (Irving 165). This says that even after being asleep for twenty years he can still come back and resume his life and be even happier than he was before. These quotes prove that Rip Van Winkle stays the same even after sleeping through the American Revolution. He continues to have a positive attitude even though his surroundings have changed. Apart from being a flat character, Rip Van Winkle is also a dynamic character. "Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years of matrimony rolled on; a t...
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...ood by all who read it. The themes are easily understood and the literary elements help to show them.
Works Cited
Canby, Henry Seidel. "Washington Irving." DISCovering Authors. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold. Web. 26 Jan. 2010.
Clark, William Bedford. "Washington Irving." DISCovering Authors. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold. Web. 25 Jan. 2010.
Irving, Washington. "Rip Van Winkle." Elements of Literature. Vol. 5. Austin: Rinehart and Winston, 2000. 154-65. Print.
Myers, Robert M., and Andrew B. Myers. “Washington, Irving.” DISCovering Authors. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center – Gold. Web. 13 Jan. 2010.
Snell, George. “Washington, Irving: A Revaluation.” DISCovering Authors Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center – Gold. Web 13 Jan 2010.
Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.
Irving, Washington. “Rip Van Winkle.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Bayn. New York: Norton & Company, 1999.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Irving Washington. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 5th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998. 948-69.
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,
In Washington Irving’s work “Rip Van Winkle,” Irving demonstrates all characteristics of an American Mythology rather humorously. These characteristics affect the story attracting the attention of readers and impacting the reader’s experience of the story by relishing America’s unique attributes and values. In “Rip Van Winkle,” Irving incorporates attributes of American Mythology by setting the story in exciting pastimes, filling the story with strange and exaggerated characters, and featuring magical mysterious events.
Perkins, Geroge, and Barbara Perkins. The American Tradition in Literature. 12th ed. Vol. 2. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print
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.
In Rip Van Winkle, Irving shows his doubts in the American Identity and the American dream. After the Revolutionary war, America was trying to develop its own course. They were free to govern their own course of development; however, some of them had an air of uncertainties on their own identity in this new country. Irving was born among this generation in the newly created United States of America, and also felt uncertainty about the American identity. Irving might be the writer that is the least positive about being an American. The main reason for this uncertainty is the new born American has no history and tradition while the Europe has a great one accumulated for thousands of years. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, Irving borrows an old European tale to make it take place in America. This tale related to the Dutch colonists haunts the kaatskill mountains. In order to highlight the American identity, Irving praises the “majestic” mountains which Europe lacks. He describes the mountains that “their summits…will glow and light up like a crown of glory” Nevertheless, the use of these ancient explorers into Rip Van Winkle only to show that although American has formed its own identity, no one can cut its connection with Europe. No wonder when America was still under tyranny of the British rule, some people still cannot cut the blood relationship with Europe. Therefore, the American identity is blurred by their relationship with Europe since then.
Perkins George, Barbara. The American Tradition in Literature, 12th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print
DeMont, John, Citizens Irving: K.C. Irving and his Legacy, Doubleday Canada Limited, Toronto, 1991. 171-176. Print.
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.
Washington Irving presents two of the chosen short stories, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”, by saying they are works of a Diedrich Knickerbocker. The reason he published the stories under that name came from the fact that his brothers were all in the study of law. Irving tried that career out for a while, but the he quickly grew bored. He told his brothers that he wanted to find a different career. When he started writing, he grew embarrassed and decided to change his name in printing.
Washington Irving's, "Rip Van Winkle" presented a tale of a "dreamer." Rip Van Winkle was a family man
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...