How Did Literature Impact Rip Van Winkle

Hook: In the words of Edgar Allan Poe himself, “ With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion”

Thomas Paine, born in Thetford, England in 1737, would later in life write a pamphlet that swayed opinions to support independence from England. Before immigrating to America in 1774, Paine worked as an excise man, collecting taxes. Before being fired from his job, in 1772 he published a pamphlet aiding his fellow excise men. After being fired from his job, he declared bankruptcy and, with Benjamin Franklin, immigrated to America. Arriving in Philadelphia in 1774, Paine became a journalist and wrote for Pennsylvania Magazine. Often writing about his views on the abomination that is slavery, he began to write other works such as the renown Common Sense. Being the English-American political activist, philosopher, and revolutionary he was; he was an influence to many and an outgoing character. From his writings to his actions; he played an important role towards America's independence and development.

An American folklore that established Washington Irving as one of the first American authors, “Rip Van Winkle” is a short story about a local Dutch-American villager and the mysterious event that kept him away from home for twenty years. Narrated in the third person omniscient, the narrator depicts a panoramic view of the natural landscape as well as provides an objective view of the main character’s thoughts. To provide a closer view of his personal thoughts, Robert Coover reintroduces Rip Van Winkle with his own monologue in Rip Awake to give him a voice to describe the aftermath of his experience when he returns home. Irving and Coover demonstrates

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! These characteristics make for an enchanted story that has charmed readers for two hundred years.

The most iconic moment in our nation’s history is the American Revolution, when the thirteen colonies declared their independence from their patron country of Great Britain. Many great and brilliant people were involved with the development of the revolution, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. But two individuals in their writings held much influence towards the beginning of the revolution. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine were two prolific writers before, during and after the American Revolution. And while they both share similar ideologies and were very influential to the American Revolution, their approaches and their ends differ in more than just age.

In the passage “Why Literature Matters” by Dana Gioia he supports his assertion, which is “the interest young Americans showed in the arts -- and especially literature -- actually diminished.” he uses statistics, direct quotes, and facts to back up her main assertion. The author is writing this piece to make the audience realize how greatly literature is diminishing and trying to scare us into being intrigued into the arts which will hopefully change our world for the better.

Throughout the story of Rip Van Winkle there is a theme of mutability. Mutability can be described as an "ability to change". In the story of Rip Van Winkle, Irving's main theme seems to be the mutability of both the individual American and American society itself. In the

In many stories and poems; such as the Tell Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The Raven, Annabel Lee, The House of Usher, and so many more timeless works, Edgar Allan Poe has been captivating his audiences with spine tingling thrillers through the words and style of his own twisted ways. The only way to describe where Poe’s writing belongs in history, would be classified as gothic genre. From the start of the 1800’s to present day and the future of literature, through irony, repetition, imagery, and symbolism Poe has been bewitching readers with his gore and insane writings.

Biographical and short story writer, Washington Irving is known for his works “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” However, he does have additional short stories. Between 1819 and 1820, Washington Irving published The Sketch Book, which was made up of approximately 30 short stories. Within those works were characters such as John Bull, Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, and several other unnamed characters. Now, the nameless characters in Washington Irving’s tales had just as deep impacts in their stories as named characters; from those deep impacts came about noticeable character resemblances between those characters. Irving’s blatant similar characteristics between characters include possessing requited love, being financially inept, being selfless, and being eerie.

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. Therefore, Van Winkle must endure the unrelenting nagging of his wife, Dame Van Winkle, every day. When he can no longer deal with the words of his wife, Van Winkle decides to wander the mountainside with his loyal cur dog, Wolf. After some time, Van Winkle hears his name called out by a Dutch man,

Johannes Gutenberg’s life and accomplishments had the biggest impact on our modern world today. Gutenberg was the inventor of the printing press in the fifteenth century. His printing press let Europe be able to compete with the civilization of China. “The printing of books encouraged scholarly research and increased public’s desire to gain knowledge, which would eventually have an enormous impact on European society” (page 162). This states to us how important and useful his invention was for Europe. This invention affected the world now because people saw what he did later in life and decided to create other machines like his. Also it began a new way to spread any news quicker and to more people without just telling everyone.

Although Rip Van Winkle was immature, idle, irresponsible, and despised his wife, I believe that he was pure at heart. Rip was well liked by his kids which says a lot about his character. Along with the fact that he has a bunch of friends, and he is very friendly in general to people around him. After he is humiliated by his wife in front of his friends he goes to the mountains with his dog and drinks a mysterious type of liquor which causes him to sleep for 20 years. After his sleep he goes back to the town and finds himself in a new country and finds out his wife is dead. He is relieved to hear the news of his wife, and shows little care in the new politics. This shows the readers that despite having

This research paper deals with Washington Irving's most famous short story Rip Van Winkle, which tells the story of a man, who falls into a magical sleep during the English colonial time and wakes up twenty years later as a citizen of the United States of America.

Over the course of this week we read two works of writing. One is the short story “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving in 1819. The other is Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. These two stories are pinnacle pieces of literature. One being a well known fictional work through the United States, the other is the writing of and by one of America’s Founding Fathers. Both pieces are very intertwined with American literature. For both to be such great American works of literature there is a strikingly a large difference in mannerism between Rip Van Winkle and Benjamin Franklin; and with that a whole different theme to the intended audience.

While reviewing the list of masterpieces of the spoken time, on the top of the list we can see the name of “Rip Van Winkle”. This short story combines the abovementioned Gothic features and attracts the reader to see the realities through finding the hidden ideas. Step by step we’ll review the main and key points of the short story, Rip Van Winkle, to clear up some hidden ideas. Other yields of Irving’s pen similar to “Rip Van Winkle” are full of with Gothic elements. As the best examples such as “The Devil and Tom Walker”, “The Spectre Bridegroom” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” etc. are full of mysteries and enigmas.