The story of “Rip Van Winkle”, by Washington Irving, is of a quite unconcerned man whom takes a lengthy nap. Rip lives an ordinary life and busies himself with mundane activities, such as fishing all day with no bites and doing odd jobs for his neighbors. One day, he wonders into the Catskill Mountains to go hunting, falls asleep on a knoll, and does not awake for twenty years. Rip’s epic nap is a metaphor for political apathy and passivity in public and personal life. He awakes to a completely new world, which has undergone tumultuous changes, including that of his wife’s death. The story of “Rip Van Winkle” explores the consequences of his lack of involvement in his 6society. Apathy, a trait explored in “Rip Van Winkle”, has serious consequences and shows readers that participation in one’s own life is abundantly important. Rip falling asleep for 20 years is quite intriguing, which leaves many readers wondering: what if his story was real? What if someone fell asleep and missed the American Revolution or 9/11? The consequences of such a great mistake …show more content…
If a Rip Van Winkle experience occurred in real life, like Isaac Hayes’ story, and caused an American citizen to miss an important American conflict like 9/11 or the Civil War, one would discover innumerable changes upon their return. There are great consequences of being apathetic and passive, which show their effects on both the personal and public life of Rip Van Winkle. These consequences include Rip becoming irrelevant to the people he once knew, not knowing the new culture and people of his village, and the most important consequence - change. The story also supports that Americans should play an active role in their own lives, like Rip should have done in his personal life. “Rip Van Winkle” is a popular, intriguing story that details the traits of apathy and passivity in regards to one’s
“Rip Van Winkle” and the Emergence of an American Mythology. By Danise Bachman Rip van winkle in indeed a classic piece of American mythology. Washington Irving set this story in the past and filled it with exaggerated and sometimes, strange characters. It also features a mysterious and magical occurrence that put the main character to sleep for twenty years!
Krakauer devotes several pages of description for each character and describes them in such a way that causes the reader to feel an emotional connection. However, his personal portrayal of each character is included in the descriptions, teaching the reader to either love or despise the individual. The characters that the reader develops a connection with are described in a positive and heroic manner, which causes the reader to experience their emotions throughout the journey. While stranded on the mountain, Rob Hall speaks with his pregnant wife and states, “Sleep well my sweetheart. Please don’t worry too much” (Krakauer 308).
The writings by Washington seemed as though only the head females were the ones that had the darker personalities. In Rip Van Winkle, Irving tells the readers that a great deal of the woman wanted to have Rip. The difference between these women and the woman he was already married to was that these other women were a great deal nicer, and would not abuse Rip the way she did. Moreover, after thinking for a while, I had a realization that maybe Washington had not had the greatest relationships with women. He might have always had the abusive wife who always found a way to yell at him, accordingly having seen all of these other women being extraordinarily kind to anybody around them.
Dreams, they said, are powerful doses of blended imaginative and realistic images and figures, combined, twisted, reshaped into new ambiguous objects that exist with full colors inside our comfortable hive of our unconscious sleep. How powerful these doses affects us, the fragile but flexible human mind is yet another incredible insight upon unlocking the mysteries of our mind machinery, and particularly, how it influenced Perry, one of the killers with ambiguous motives for a horrific murder in In Cold Blood written by Truman Capote. The dreams he experienced could be classified into two types, the one that the one that directly influenced his choice and the one that influenced his personality which later developed into spontaneous actions
The emotion provoking feeling of apathy is displayed in everyday life. Furthermore, this emotion is embedded into the framework of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s work of literature. Throughout life, individuals undergo changes within their personalities, creating uniqueness to them. Oppositely, a being whom does not change, becomes a static individual, as seen in the novel within the character of Mildred.
Imagery is defined as the use of “figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas” in a way to “appeal to our physical senses” (LiteraryDevices Editors). Washington Irving is an American author during the early ages of an independent America. Taking place before and after the American Revolution, Irving offers offers a unique perspective on small American towns. Throughout his short story Rip Van Winkle, Irving incorporates the element of imagery to connect the audience to the setting, relate the character to the audience, and enhance the reader's experience. Irving writes as the main character, Rip Van Winkle.
In what ways did the Great Depression affect the American people? After a decade of economic prosperity, what seemed like an era that defined the concept of the American dream, quickly came to an end when the stock market on Wall Street collapsed in 1929. The aftermath of the events that occurred on Wall Street would put its heavy mark on the years to follow among the citizens of the United States. Banks closed down, unemployment rose and homelessness increased. It was a widespread national catastrophe that had its impacts on both poor and rich.
The novel, In Cold Blood, is an anomaly in the literary paradigm. The author, Truman Capote, designed his novel in a way that made it unique when compared to others. His fundamental purpose was to present the problem of American violence and the fragility of the American Dream and how it can be so easily shattered. In order to portray his purpose, he used many rhetorical devices including syntax, diction, tone, ethos, logos and pathos. These devices allowed Capote’s novel to be different from the spectrum of other non-fiction novels and to support his purpose.
Rip Van Winkle pursues a very seldom lifestyle with no pursuit and no ambition. He displays almost no willingness to change from his traditional ways after realizing the American colonies were independent from British Tyranny. He even still accepts the rule of King George III when he enters the town greeting the towns people with saying he is a loyal subject of the king. The reader can see his total disembodiment from the situation when the narrator says “instead of being a subject of his Majesty George the Third, he was now a free citizen of the United States. Rip, in fact, was no politician;
The Great American Dream is an ideal that states through hard work and dedication, every American citizen has the opportunity to accomplish personal goals and achieve success. The amount of effort put forth to obtain these goals, and achieve individualized success is decided upon by that citizen. Some of the more common goals and successes are ownership of property, obtaining wealth, enjoying liberties, experiencing patriotism, and raising a family. In “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving, the main character Rip is able to obtain the Great American Dream through laziness. Washington Irving satirizes the Great American Dream in his short story, and in this paper I will analyze how “Rip Van Winkle” can be read as a parody.
In novels focusing on parody of European attributes of romanticism Washington Irving created the unexampled masterpieces. “Rip Van Winkle” being one of the unexampled works of Washington Irving combines gentle and perfect humor. This story is Irving’s imaginative reworking of an old German tale in which his valuable parody professionally covered. In the story Washington Irving gave the national shade to the description of events and outlandish beings for America.
Misogyny is the dislike of, contempt for, or prejudice of women; Washington Irving has been accused of misogyny because of the treatment of women in his stories and their content. Washington Irving was a writer during the 1800’s, and some of his most popular works include “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Within these tales and other works of Irving’s, aspects of misogyny is discernible, though there is debate about whether the author himself was a misogynist. I believe that the misogyny that is shown throughout a select few of Irving’s works is due in part to the time period, not entirely Irving, himself.
Washington Irving’s, The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. is a collection of thirty-four of his essays and short stories. Attributed to the fictional Dutch historian character, Diedrich Knickerbocker, are two of Irving’s most popular stories, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Rip Van Winkle is the story of a Dutch villager, living at the foot of the Catskill mountains before and after the American Revolutionary War. Van Winkle is genuinely loved by the people of his village, especially by the children whom he tells ghost stories to, plays with, and gives toys. However, this simple, easy-going man has one great error in his character: he is incredibly lazy, despising work in all forms.
While Washington Irving was writing “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820), it was the time when Great Britain reached independence and all over the world were going many changes. In this story, he described the small village with its rural life where everything remained the same far from the immigration and improvement of the
Hugh S. Dawson also added some thoughts to the ideas of Young, Fetterley and Fiedler about Rip Van Winkle that Rip Van Winkle being Gothic story once more shows the advantage of marriage to avoid from wasting life in impenetrable forest [6, 14/08/2015]. Another bestseller work of Washington Irving is “The Spectre Bridegroom” that also included in “The Sketch Book by Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.”. If Irving in “Rip Van Winkle” headed to mix the physical and metaphorical dream reflecting the sigh of freedom in colony, in this work he brought the new American breath to the old Europe. Unlike other works, Irving described the happened events in Germany. All these hinted at that Irving wanted to ruin the old fences around Europe that formulated for many years.