Washington Irving: Shaping American Identity Through Literature

Washington Irving is considered The Father of Literature, who has helped shape the

American Identity with his works . Being the first American author to make a living off of his writing, he has captured the hearts of many with his famous works . With his writing style and characters different from any other author at the time really gave him the advantage to become the first author to be famous in both Europe and America . In each story there would be different themes, especially different to the type of themes in other stories at the time . The themes went from super natural, greediness, social status, identity, life after Revolutionary War, and change.

Washington Irving gave us a wide variety of themes for readers to bury oneself in.

Though it Ichabod seems to make Katrina look like the victim, she also uses greed when she uses Ichabod’s affection almost as a security blanket to make sure that Brom Van Brunt would still have feelings for her, making him jealous .

Another theme in the story of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, would be supernatural . It is said that in Sleep Hollow, “They are given to all kinds of marvelous beliefs; are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air . The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols . ” (Irving 1) The town believes in the Headless Horseman, whom is a tale in the town . At the end, where the town believed that Ichabod was beheaded by the Headless Horseman while on a trip in the forest, but the town was too busy believing the the supernatural legends to see the natural

It gives readers the understanding that they are now they’re own country with the freedom that they didn't have before .

Diaz 4 Also in the collection of, The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Grant there is a short story named The Legend of Engulphed Convent . The theme of this story is for the legends to outlive their origins. The story was set in 711 AD, during the Moorish, which were Muslims from Northern Africa, who invaded Spain . The legend says while the holy Abess prayed to the Virgin

Mary to save the nuns from the corruption that happened. The theme comes into place when Irving stated, “ Forty years," added the holy man, "have elapsed since this event, yet the bells of that sacred edifice are still heard, from time to time, sounding from under ground, together with the pealing of the organ, and the chanting of the choir. The Moors avoid this neighborhood, as haunted ground, and the whole place, as thou mayest perceive, has become covered with a thick and lonely forest.” (Irving 1) The nuns who were “destroyed” in the invasion of the moors, but even after the forty years they were still able to be seen from the prayer of