American Puritanism And American Romanticism

“Rip Van Winkle” describes multiple images that make it a story with a deep desire to connect with nature.

Puritanism is often compared to Western European culture since America was largely founded on the exportation of Puritans from Europe. Puritans then maintained their relevance by making up the vanguard of frontier towns in the push West. Their motivation for that was that fleeing the non-Puritan "sinners" who made up second wave settlers who moved into Puritan towns. Despite that mobility, or their opinions of the later settlers, the Puritans undeniably left their mark in the towns they had originated. When making the comparison of American and Western European culture, it is commonly accepted that Americans are more reserved in their media content. For example, there can be much more nudity in advertisement in France than America. This disparity is typically attributed to the Puritan influence. The idea of Puritans living through religion and government has had a tremendous impact on American society nearly 4,000 years later.

American Romanticism is a journey away from the corruption of civilization and the limits of rational thoughts, and toward the integrity of nature and the freedom of imagination. In other words, it is a journey away from industrialism or rationalism, which is working hard and earning money. This movement, originally started in Europe and later reached in America. It can be best defined as a thought that values feeling and intuition over reason. Some of the characteristics include the importance of feeling and intuition over reason, placing faith in inner experience and the power of imagination, preferring youthful innocence over educated sophistication, finding beauty and reality in exotic locales. It encouraged people to enjoy the integrity of nature and freedom of imagination. It also encouraged one to have faith in imagination and inner experience. In addition, romanticists found inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture and found poetry as the highest expression of imagination. Romanticists believed that the landscape was regarded as an extension of the human personality, capable of sympathy with man 's emotional state, whereas nature was regarded as a vehicle for spirit just as man; the breath of God fills both man and the earth. However, romantics would create chaos when the issues were connected with human rights, individualism, and freedom from oppression (Arpin 138-150).

Washington Irving is known as being one of the most famous American authors in history. He has created fresh and exciting stories such as “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” “The Devil and Tom Walker,” and “Rip Van Winkle” that continue to captivate those who read them even today. In these three stories, Irving takes a stance on what the early Americas were like as he creates settings full of both mystery and wonder. His settings are symbols of both America’s mystery and potential, and he uses personification and motifs to convey this message.

American Romanticism illustrates the first truly American literary movement that began alongside the beginning of a new nation. American Romanticism appeared in response to the rationalists, such as Ben Franklin, which the American Romantics believed to be too single-minded and expressive. American Romanticism focused on the beauty of nature, imagination, feelings and expressions, higher truths in life that had to be discovered, and individualism. Consequently, this literary movement turned away from the corruption of cities and the rationalist mindset of the world and focused on nature and imagination. Washington Irving, in his stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”, displays characteristics of American Romanticism and

have made gigantic advancements in technology, in medicine, and in civil rights. Humanity as a whole has progressed significantly, yet we still have many of the same issues that we did hundreds of years ago. Yes, we may not have slavery or the Jim Crow Laws, but we still have institutionalized racism that allows the shooting of unarmed black men by police officers to go virtually unpunished. Yes, women are allowed to vote, but they still get paid less than their male counterparts. America has made many advancements and one might say is doing better than it had been in the past, but doing better doesn’t mean doing good. One part of American history that we still unfortunately share many similarities with is the Puritan society of colonial America. Although America as a whole has made many advances since the 1600s, we still hold many of the same flaws that the Puritans did.

There have been three major influential movements in American history—Puritanism, Rationalism, and Romanticism. Each occurring during generally different time periods, they produced a number of different types of literature reflecting their beliefs at the time. The Puritans, being some of the first settlers in modern day America, relied heavily on beliefs they brought with them from the Church of England. Rather than simply being followers of their prior Church, Puritans believed in the Church as less of a structured organization and more of a spiritual journey or community. In these beliefs, the Puritans sought to bring religion, spirituality, and the Bible into mainstream thought. The Puritans had a number of other important beliefs

The period of Romanticism, occurring between the years 1800 and 1860, left a significant impact on not only the literature of that time, but the literature of today as well. Prior to romantic writings, the world focused on society and logic. Romanticism allowed people to start valuing individualism and to appeal to emotional responses. This new way of thinking brought new literary styles, themes, and genres that were never explored before and are still found today. The literature of Romanticism allowed people to escape the harshness of reality and enter a different world.

American Romanticism illustrates the first purely American literary movement that began alongside the beginning of a new nation. American Romanticism appeared in response to the rationalists, such as Ben Franklin, which the American Romantics believed to be too single-minded and not as expressive. Therefore, this literary movement turned away from the corruption of cities and the physical world and focused on nature and imagination. Washington Irving, in his stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”, displays characteristics of American Romanticism and creates American Romantic heroes.

Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, at first glance, seems rather straightforward. A young man, in a rather small village, trying to get away from his duties of being a husband and his wife in general. However, while analyzing it further, it appears Irving is trying to give insight into his thoughts and feelings surrounding the American Revolution. As many thoughts and feelings are hidden in the writing of this text, the search for an identity during this time is the one that sticks out the most while reading Rip Van Winkle. There are many aspects of the short story that put emphasis on identity during this time in American history. There are many metaphors, comparisons and situations that point to identity being an important aspect of

Ever since the invention of language, humans have been obsessed and intrigued with the aspect of storytelling. Each story, whether written or spoken, holds an important theme within its creative words and exciting plot. While each story is special and unique, over the course of history, different periods of literature have formed where authors tend to focus on similar themes and messages. One of which was the American Romantic era, where authors used their stories to challenge the boundaries of society, and delve deeper into what makes people inherently human, both the flaws and perfections. Some of America’s greatest works of literature were born in this period, like those of Poe, and Hawthorne. A very common literary theme during the romantic period was that of good versus evil, in both individual characters and society as a whole; this theme is especially evident in works such as The Tell Tale Heart, The Raven, and Young Goodman Brown.

Rip Van Winkle, a story written by Washington Irving in the early 1800s, demonstrates the emergence and development of American Mythology. Packed full of mythological elements, Irving’s tale depicts a man who encounters mysterious and fantastical characters in equally intriguing settings. Rip Van Winkle displays three major factors that contribute to mythology: mysterious, historical setting, remarkable and strange characters, and heroic, magical events and their consequences.

Puritanism was a religious movement that began in the late sixteenth century. The puritans were a group of reformed protestants who sought to “purify” the Church of England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. However, puritanism was not just a historical movement, it was a lifestyle that the puritans brought to New England. Puritanism can be defined by predestination, calling, covenant, Protestant ethic, and conversion.

When read at first glance, Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" seems to be a tale of a lazy man who just wanted some peace and quiet, and ended up with almost too much of it. When analyzed at a deeper level however, "Rip Van Winkle" is more a symbolic story about the changes in the world going on at the time the story was written. Irving wrote "Rip Van Winkle" to show the world the struggle of the newly independent Americans trying to cope with life after English rule.

This can be viewed through the works of author Washington Irving in his short story, The Devil and Tom Walker, published in 1824, where he goes into detail of his opinions of romanticism and what it means to him. A quote from the short story is, “You shall open a broker’s shop in Boston next month,” … “You shall extort bonds, foreclose mortgages, drive the merchants to bankruptcy”. This quotation is said through a man in the story who is symbolizing the devil; therefore Irving is using this to show a negative aspect of human nature and how there is a dark and corrupt side to society. Another example of romanticism having a negative aspect of human nature is in the many stories and essays written by the author Edgar Allen Poe, such as, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “Ligeia”, and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”. The short story with the most detail and evidence of romanticism and it’s negative aspect would be another famous work by Poe, “The Pit and the Pendulum”. The story is based upon Gothic literature and includes the story with the tragedy of death and the events that follow. An example from the story is, “I shrank back, but the closing walls pressed me resistlessly onward. At length for my seared and writhing body there was no longer an inch of foothold on the firm floor of the