In his short story, “Rip Van Winkle,” Washington Irving highlights the value of the fantastic and points out the need for America to remember its past. The reason he does this is because Americans of Irving’s time were disillusioned with the fanciful and imaginary elements of literature, preferring the more “mature” writing style of their English counterparts, who focused their energy on hard facts and truth or, “ more substantial food” (Martin 138). Because of this, many Americans believed that