The Message Of 'Rip Van Winkle' By Washington Irving

After reading a variety of short stories, my favorite story was “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving. Rip Van Winkle is about how the main character, Rip, who one day wanders into the mountains with his dog to go hunting. While he is in the mountains he came across a crew of men who he ends up drinking with. Rip falls into a deep sleep, wakes up 20 years later, and returns to his village. As he returned to his village, it becomes very evident that everything has changed and that no one recognizes who he is. Rip discovers that his wife has passed. Eventually, several villagers, along with his son and daughter, identify him and he becomes accepted by others. The story was a pleasant reading experience for me because it puts life into perspective in the sense that many different things can change in a span of

The literary message that Washington Irving was trying to convey to the readers is that no one remembers the clothes you wore or what car you drove. The things that people remember is what kind of person you were and the different ways you may have impacted their life. This message is shown in the story when Rip returns to the village and no one knows who he is until he is identified by a few different villagers, and as a result, he is accepted by the people for the good he has done in the past. I was impressed by the author’s style of writing because he used many different techniques throughout the story which kept the readers on their toes. One techniques that Irving used was the ability to speed up time. I believe that Irving did a fantastic job portraying the character in the story because early on he went into great detail about how Rip loved working with and teaching the children in the village and how