Washington Irving Contributions

The revered and respected first president, George Washington, gave the US hope during one of its most difficult times. Using the events and circumstances of his life to learn and advance his position, he grew from humble beginnings into a legend. George Washington had a valuable, well-rounded education from ages seven to fifteen, studying all the subjects (Nevins and Graff). Due to his father’s death, George grew up under the supervision of his half-brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon, learning many lessons and developing thoughts, actions, and manners he used later in life (Nevins and Graff). He worked as a surveyor for his first career and learned the benefits of hard work, endurance, and resourcefulness (Nevins and Graff). After Lawrence died, George took over running the family plantation and found farming an honorable, delectable, amusing, and profitable occupation (Nevins and Graff). Standing six feet tall with broad shoulders, Washington cultivated a lavish lifestyle of dancing, cards, billiards, and hunting as a prominent and active member in his community and church (Nevins and Graff). George Washington started his military career in November of 1752, and in 1755 he took the position as commander of all the Virginian troops at the young age of 23 years (Nevins and Graff). Washington desired more honor and respect than he received, so he resigned from the military in the fall of 1758 full of frustration (Nevins and Graff). War moved slowly, troops did not receive enough

After the American Revolution there were many of the American people who were lost as to whom they were now. There were two definite groups that had been created, those that were for the revolution and those that were against. At the same time, there were some that had just ridden along for the ride. When the revolution came to an end, there were people who were stuck in the middle confused as to who they were and what being an American specifically meant. Washington Irving shows this fear in his short story called “Rip Van Winkle”. In this short story, he brings to life the common fear and confusion that was among the people. Few were sure of who they were and who was considered their friends or their enemies. I want to show how George

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He attended school for approximately eight years. Washington lived with his mother until the age of 16. At the age of 15, Washington took a job as an assistant land surveyor. In 1748, he began working in the Shanandoah Valley to help survey the land holdings of Lord Fairfax. By 1749, he established a good reputation as a land surveyor and was appointed Culpeper counties official land surveyor.

In Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” an allegorical reading can be seen. The genius of Irving shines through, in not only his representation in the story, but also in his ability to represent both sides of the hot political issues of the day. Because it was written during the revolutionary times, Irving had to cater to a mixed audience of Colonists and Tories. The reader’s political interest, whether British or Colonial, is mutually represented allegorically in “Rip Van Winkle,” depending on who is reading it. Irving uses Rip, Dame, and his setting to relate these allegorical images on both sides. Irving would achieve success in both England and America, in large part because his political satires had individual allegorical meanings.

In Rip Van Winkle, Irving shows his doubts in the American Identity and the American dream. After the Revolutionary war, America was trying to develop its own course. They were free to govern their own course of development; however, some of them had an air of uncertainties on their own identity in this new country. Irving was born among this generation in the newly created United States of America, and also felt uncertainty about the American identity. Irving might be the writer that is the least positive about being an American. The main reason for this uncertainty is the new born American has no history and tradition while the Europe has a great one accumulated for thousands of years. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, Irving

American History, it has done so much in time that has affected how we live life today and how we interpret things. American Literature reflects that and all it has left us with. Throughout the stories and passages we’ve read this course all of them have left a impact on how and why the writers wrote about what they did. It was all because of American History which later went on and fathered American Literature. American Literature has made society how it is today and painted a vivid picture of how American’s and people live and many of these writers had that in mind when they took these notes.

Often heralded as the world’s greatest nation, the United States is also considered home to the world’s greatest authors. Reputable authors such as Fitzgerald, Twain, and Steinbeck remain relevant even through the washing waves of time. One such timeless author, Ray Bradbury, ventured the hazardous path of taboo to write of change. Through his novels of innocent youths evolving into children enlightened beyond their years, Bradbury utilizes the motif of time, innocence, and the philosophical movements of existentialism, transcendentalism, and romanticism to describe catastrophic events the American culture could face if existing destitute judgments continue to prevail. Ray Bradbury dared to reveal his voice.

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.

The following chapters portray the sections of Washington life when he was a soldier, his days as a general, and his duty as the president. The book details the military plights Washington faced as a leader. Ellis says that Washington “lost more battles than he won; indeed, he lost more battles than any victorious general in modern history.” The War for Independence emerged as the most significant milestone in George Washington's life, a time in which he evolved into a grown man, a notorious politician, and a national icon. Ellis does not take us through each battle in detail, but describes the events that shaped Washington’s life and made him a human

As the new world struggled to gain impendence from its mother country, Britain, native authors also try to develop their own style of writings. It quickly became evident that the search for a native literature became a national obsession. Then with the triumph of American independence, many at the time saw this as a divine sign that America and her people were destined for greatness. Greatness came with a strong nation and thousands of poems and stories that still shape our nation. The recent revolution greatly expressed the heart of the American people. However, it would take another fifty years of development throughout American before it produced the first great generation of American writers such as, Washington Irving, Ralph

Irving and Cooper received international appraise in the 1820s as the country’s first authors who wrote about American themes. Previously, American textbooks were written by the British, but these authors inspired Americans to write textbooks for themselves (page 240).

George Washington was born on February 22nd 1732, in Mount Vernon, Virginia. He was born into a very wealthy family. His father died when he was only eleven years old. Throughout George’s life he was living in different households in Virginia. George lived with his mother in a house near Fredericksburg. Other family like brothers and other siblings lived in Westmoreland, and Mount

Irving, Poe, and Hawthorne were arguably some of the most popular writers of the 19th century (Dincer 223; Lauter 2505). All three of them are known for their short essays and their advocacy to make writing a full-fledged and legitimate profession. Their writings show that they were hugely influenced by the Romantic Movement (romanticism); ‘a movement in art, literature, music, philosophy, politics and culture towards focusing on the individual, the subjective, and the spontaneous’ (Dincer 218). Romanticist writing “encouraged contemplation and self-awareness, direct contact with nature, and a focus on and an exploration of inner feelings” (Dincer 223). Yet, they had distinct writing style, focus, and theme. While Irving was more of a light romantic writer, a writing style characterized by optimism, Poe and Hawthorne are widely considered dark romantic Authors whose writings were characterized by pessimism that sees the world as full of dark, evil, suffering, horror, and mystery. While Irving’s writing focused more on satire and humor, Poe & Hawthorne’s writing was more about evil, crime, sin, and mystery. Moreover, Irving seem to be nostalgic aristocrat with huge ‘interest in the landscape, folklore, and the past’ (2506), whereas Poe and Hawthorne had a contrary view of the past (Liptak).

George Washington's life began with his birth in 1732, to Augustine Washington and Mary Ball Washington, British immigrants who were living in the newly founded American colony of Virginia. He had a total of nine siblings, including a pair of older half-brothers, and the large Washington family worked their way up from the gentry class of common farmers to become wealthy landowners. Working as a farmer at first,

The development of American Literature, much like the development of the nation, began in earnest, springing from a Romantic ideology that honored individualism and visionary idealism. As the nation broke away from the traditions of European Romanticism, America forged its own unique romantic style that would resonate through future generations of literary works. Through periods of momentous change, the fundamentally Romantic nature of American literature held fast, a fact clearly demonstrated in the fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald. In an era of post-war disillusionment, when idealism succumbed to hedonistic materialism, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s romantically charged novel,