Rather than attempt to dissect the works of a more obscure writer I've decided to go with America's first well known and widely respected author, Washington Irving. Washington's story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is well known among my peers, but I can accurately assume far less have bothered to read it. I am sure most are familiar with the many movies and cartoon knockoffs the Headless Horseman has spawned. They shall not fret however, as I will explore this literary classic for thy dear lackadaisical MTV generation.
Upon first beginning the story, in parenthesis it states that the story was found among the papers of a Dietrich Knickerbocker. Also, in the beginning of Irving's other story Rip Van Winkle it says the same. I can only wonder what Washington meant when he went out of his way use a pen name his stories, probably known to be his anyway. Was this to add to the mystical sense of the story? Was it a sort of "Blair Witch Project" kind of B.S. to add life and mock authenticity to the tale? Or is he merely poking a jab at the elitist and old-fashioned residents Dutch in New York? I do know the phrase Knickerbocker must have gained some notoriety as it's a popular nick-name for a New Yorker and spawned an awful basketball team in desperate need of a new general manager.
Irving's story, with his long rambling paragraphs, isn't necessarily easy to read, but is certainly is much more comprehensible that some of the other things we've read in this era. He may be long winded, but writes for the most part, clearly and wittingly lets us know the key parts to our story, it setting, its inhabitants, and our pro and antagonist. I like his writing and can see how this story has held up so well over the years, certainly a man before ...
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...ad more deeply it shows enlightenment thinking and a tale of great romanticism. While "Sleepy Hallow" could be considered part of the enlightenment era, it still holds to those Puritan roots. It is a Puritan story of good over evil, with the kind schoolteacher, evil undead mercenary, and a town bewitched by a German doctor. It holds many Puritan ideals. Both Ichabod Cane and Abraham are both hardworking and educated gentleman. Ichabod is held in great respect for his faith, singing in the church, and always lending a helping hand to those in town. It is a classic tale of brains against brawn, David and Goliath. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and was quite surprised I didn't' encounter it earlier in my English classes. Also, having read some other stories of this era (most of which very dry with congested storytelling) makes you appreciate this classic that much more.
Throughout Irving’s story, he used characterization, irony, the dreams, and other literacy devices to bring The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to life for Irving’s audience.
The readings “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving and The Monster by Stephen Crane are to amazing readings. However, these two texts represent violence and conflicts in different ways, which shows that although they have the same concept their tactic for this same concept is used in a different approach.
I believe The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was a deep but pretty boring book. It was also thought provoking, but at the same time,this book made you think for yourself. I believe the end of the novel was the deepest part of the book, so I used that for the anchor text of the paper. I feel that these older books tend to be a bit deeper, but they often bore me, and I prefer to not read any more old books in the future.
In Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” an allegorical reading can be seen. The genius of Irving shines through, in not only his representation in the story, but also in his ability to represent both sides of the hot political issues of the day. Because it was written during the revolutionary times, Irving had to cater to a mixed audience of Colonists and Tories. The reader’s political interest, whether British or Colonial, is mutually represented allegorically in “Rip Van Winkle,” depending on who is reading it. Irving uses Rip, Dame, and his setting to relate these allegorical images on both sides. Irving would achieve success in both England and America, in large part because his political satires had individual allegorical meanings.
The original story by Washington Irving starts out in a small town of Sleepy Hollow. Irving paints an image of bountiful crops, beautiful scenery, and prosperous landowners. Ichabod Crane was a local pedagogue, who taught at the local schoolhouse. He was known for his strict ways and yet he was very popular amongst the families of his students- especially the ones who had ?pretty sisters.? Ichabod enjoyed spending fall evenings with the old widows as they sat by a fire and told stories of ghosts and demons and other supernatural beings. One story that was always told was one of the legendary Headless Horsemen. The tale tells of a soldier who had his head shot off with a cannon ball. His ghost now roamed Sleepy Hollow on his horse, looking for his lost head. In place of his head, sits a jack-o-lantern, which had a fiery glow.
Over time the language of the original text of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Irving has been reworked to accommodate the change in audience. The Heath Anthology of American Literature has an unabridged version of the original wording (1354-1373). A complete copy of the original text of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" can be found in the young adolescent classic section of a bookstore or the juvenile section in the library. A juvenile edition of the text adapted by Arthur Rackham from 1928 was a replicate of the original it is filled with seven colored illustrations and numerous sketching. A young adolescent version adapted by Bryan Brown from 2001 has been abridged to accommodate the current young reader. The format is changed in Brownâs edition. The yo...
Most Americans probably believe our times are different from Washington Irving’s era. After all, almost 200 years have passed, and the differences in technology and civil liberties alone are huge. However, these dissimilarities seem merely surface ones. When reading “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” I find that the world Irving creates in each story is very familiar to the one in which I grew up. The players may have changed, and institutions have mostly replaced roles traditionally taken on by people, but the overall pieces still fit the rural lifestyle of contemporary America.
The story the of Ichabod Crane paints a picture of the headmaster of a small town
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.
Milne, Ira Mark. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Short Stories for Students. Vol. 8. Detroit:
Although the titles of the two works are relatively similar, the plot of each is different. If the film does not include the character, Ichabod Crane, and the reference to a Headless Horseman, the film would have no resemblance to Irving’s story. The difference in structure of plot in the two works changes the entire story. Every facet of the story is different between the two. The exposition offers the audience different stories because Ichabod has a new profession in the movie. The conflict in the two w...
Irving, Washington. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Ed. Illustrated Arthur Rackham. United States: David McKay, 1928.
Irving does this to help readers realize how caught up the society of Sleepy Hollow is with their past. Irving frequently brings up the Revolutionary war and how the headless horseman was a Hessian soldier from the war. When he writes, “The dominant spirit that haunts this enchanted region is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a head. It is said to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannonball in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War… The specter is known, at all the country firesides, by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow” (Irving 2).
Washington Irving created a pseudo historian for the purpose of bettering his own work and to entertain his readers. In 1809 Irving wrote "A History of New York" through a persona known as Diedrich Knickerbocker. This was Knickerbocker's first appearance in Irving's work, but it sure wouldn't be his last. Although he was not real, Knickerbocker was a historian that seemed to be in love with the people and landscape of the northeast, particularly New York. Even though Irving never revealed it, some of his characteristics may be found within Knickerbocker's writing.
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.