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Rip Van Winkle: A Legend In American Mythology

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Washington Irving integrates three certain characteristics in his writings of “Rip Van Winkle”, a well known legend in American mythology. The story has characters are remarkable and often exaggerated in the piece, it's set in a remote time, and there are mysterious and magical events that take place and have consequences. The characters present in the story are, in fact, over-exaggerated. Especially the few main characters – Rip Van Winkle, his wife, and Wolf, Van Winkle's pet dog. Rip is a very lazy person who doesn't bother to do things for himself. But he often helped others. “In a word, Rip was ready to attend to anybody's business but his own,” (pg 64) meaning he'd rather help his neighbors than worry about his family or farm. His wife

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