The Struggle In 'Rip Van Winkle'

Through the course of “Rip Van Winkle” you stumble upon many remarkable and strange characters. Washington Irving reveals these complex characters through humor and exaggeration. Irving not only gives readers the characters

The great story “Rip Van Winkle” is an excellent example of an American Mythology. The three characteristics of an American mythology is Set in the past, often in remote or exciting places and times, Filled with remarkable, strange, or exaggerated characters, and Feature incredible, heroic, impressive, magical, or mysterious events and their consequences.

The next and main thing that he noticed was the town and country government changed during the time period that he was asleep. Nicholas Vedder’s inn was now gone since there was no one to take care of since Vedder had died. When Rip Van Winkle came into town for the first time, he saw that his old favorite place to gossip with friends was now gone and had been replaced with a modern inn. He was simply confused when he originally saw this change; not realizing yet those twenty years had gone by. The primary difference that he observed was that King George’s picture was not located on a sign that used to represent the country of England. But now the sign has a picture of someone that Rip Van Winkle did not recognize named George Washington. Rip Van Winkle did not know about the Revolutionary War or about the new government of the brand new country who won its freedom from England. His world that he thought he

This takes the metaphor a step further by making the comparison between Rip Van Winkle finally escaping his wife forever and America finally getting freedom from the English government. This aspect of the story gives a lot of insight into how Irving viewed the country before and after the Revolution, and how America was in search of their own identity from England.

Almost as soon as the grand setting is told, the designation of the story itself, the character Rip Van Winkle, is introduced. He is depicted ideally as well, said to be simple and widely liked, and most importantly good natured. Without hesitation, it is stated that he is a descendant of a family who played a more than respectable role in the history that helped to capture and establish the land that is now his mountainous village. He is recognized as more than the average citizen already, perhaps one of great influence, not unlike the nature itself. "He was, moreover, a kind neighbor and an obedient henpecked husband. Indeed, to the latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which gained him such universal popularity," (Irving 702). Despite this constant distressing of his spouse, made eminent in the opening pages, Rip was able to ignore the chronic squabbling and seek elsewhere for loyal friendships, which in turn, boosted his regard. After some time, however, the nagging became overbearing, and he was forced to flee to the highest peak of the mountains where he would be surrounded by nature, and thus was at ease with himself. However, Irving introduces a twist; the nature of the mountains cast a magical command upon Rip and forced him into a sound sleep for twenty years. When he awoke Rip found himself an old man in a place that was, at first,

He didn’t deliberately tell you what happened, he wanted you to try and infer the ending based on the knowledge he gave you throughout the story. Some of the major foreshadowing Irving did was the superstition about the town, the comparison of Ichabod and Brom Van Brunt, and

Many people experience what is commonly referred to as being “stuck in a rut” at some point in their lifetime. Whether it's being fired from a job or a lack of purpose, it causes people to feel literally stuck in their place in life, incapable of breaking out of it. Sometimes, the only way to relieve the feeling of being trapped is to remove yourself from the truth of the situation, but this is not always a favorable option. In both “Rip Van Winkle” and “Tonight is a Favor to Holly,” the characters experience their own version of reality, separate from those around them. This loss of what is real causes the characters to become distant from the people in their lives.

Stories come and go, but Washington Irving integrates “Rip Van Winkle” into American Mythology by describing mysterious events and their consequences. Rip Van Winkle, the main character, unknowingly walks into a mystical trap that costs him dearly. The man agrees to help a seemingly helpless fellow carrying a keg of liquor, and he enters an amphitheatre that held “a company of odd-looking personages playing at nine-pins” (Irving, 68-69). After settling down, Rip Van Winkle tries the mysterious liquid and slowly falls into a deep sleep, and twenty years later, he finds himself in different society and is confused to the point he “can’t tell what’s [his] name, or who [he is]” (Irving, 69-75). As Irving crafts his story, the main character comes

“Rip Van Winkle” is an American short story by Washington Irving. Published in 1819, it is a quaint essential piece of American Literature. The story is narrated by Deidrich Knickerbocker, a character created by Washington Irving. Knickerbocker tells of the life of old man Rip Van Winkle and how he slept for twenty years among the trees in the Kaatskill mountains and returned one day to a new time, only to find that his home and all his friends had long since passed. In the story, the main character Rip says, “I’m not myself—I’m somebody else—that’s me yonder—no—that’s somebody else, got into my shoes—I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and they’ve changed my gun, and every thing’s changed, and I’m changed, and I can’t tell what’s my name, or who I am!”(Irving 38). Irving’s short story has the traditional elements of romantic literature and of the time. It uses fantasy and adventure elements to draw in readers, as well as excite the imagination. Before Irving, much of the literature consisted of sermons and religious works, whereas Irving began to write fiction. Many things were taking place during this time. America was becoming more settled, independent, and was going through a revolution, which is portrayed in the story. Also, the setting in the short story was full of local folklore. These elements help to create the atmosphere in which this tall tale takes place. Washington Irving details how

Washington Irving existed in a historical of revolution; which he stimulated; everyone was trusting on him to take their views off the regular life and send it into the creative world of Irving’s creative stories. His capability to maneuver a reader's mind sawed through his explained use of imagination in “Rip Van.”

The historical context urges the Irving’s great tale into the world of American mythology. Another example of the impact of mythological setting lies near the beginning of the plot arch. Rip goes up into the Kaatskill Mountains to hunt; a place that Irving depicts as remote in the following excerpt from the story: “Rip had unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill Mountains…and the still solitude had echoed.” The isolation that Rip had while in the mountains, where he would later sleep for twenty years, impacts the reader. It shows the reader the reason why nobody ever found him, as well as evoking a deeper emotion and concern for Rip as he slept out there all alone. Emotions find themselves imbedded in this mythology once again.

Both William Bryant’s “Thanatopsis” and Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” have a strong desire to connect humans with nature. However, they use different approaches to do so. Irving uses a whimsical story and great detail to portray nature as a sentiment of beauty, “When the weather is fair and settled they are clothed in blue and purple, print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory” (Irving 30). This description expresses the purity of that natural landscape. When something is depicted as that majestic and beautiful, why

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.

            If there's one passage in this story that would summarize the entire story it would be this one. Every theme throughout Rip Van Winkle is touched on somewhere in here and the constant theme of "who Rip is" is the underlying question of both this story and this passage. In the beginning of the story I think we all took a liking to such a friendly character who cares so much about pleasing everyone. However, towards the end of the story Rip seems to examine his life and realizes that he doesn't like everything about himself, and that quite possibly some changes are in order.

“Rip was ready to attend to anybody’s business but his own: but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible,” (Irving 10). Washington Irving is a romantic American writer in the 1800s with works including Rip Van Winkle as a part of the collection of essays and short stories called The Sketchbook. Rip Van Winkle is set in a village near the Kaatskill Mountains during the American Revolution and tells the story of a man who is loved by many in the town but spends his days in idleness. His wife often nags him because Van Winkle does not work for anything in his family. One day, to escape his wife’s nagging, Van Winkle walks off into the mountains with his dog, Wolfe. He stumbles upon a group of strange