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War's effect on literature
Rip van winkle character analysis
War's effect on literature
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Rip Van Winkle Project
Part 1:
-Washington Irving describes Dame Van Winkle’s demeanor towards Rip Van Winkle as “a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use”. Most bladed tools like knives are used to cut things, and often need to be resharpened as the blades wear down over time. But Irving states that with common use, sharp language or cursing will not have “to be resharpened” and will eventually be used without thought. Dame Van Winkle is known for her hot temper and berading of Rip anywhere he goes to try to escape from her.
-“He would never even refuse to assist a neighbor in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all country frolics for husking Indian corn, or building stone fences… In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on his farm; it was the most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole country...it was the worst-conditioned farm in the neighborhood.”
Rip Van Winkle seems to be so invested in his neighbors that it severely detracts from his commitment to improving his own farm, but that seems to be his only flaw. Rip Van Winkle isn’t lazy, but he would rather help his neighbors than help himself.
- “The dogs, too, none of which he recognized for his old acquaintances, barked at him as he passed.”
In his pre-blackout days (or pre-revolutionary war days), dogs would never bark at Rip, since his blackout, obviously things have changed in the Catskill Mountains as he has missed the entire duration of the war, and is literally forgotten in time.
Part 2:
Rip Van Winkle, descendant of an army family, lives in the Catskill Mountains in New York with his wife, Dame Van Winkle, and his children. The story is set in pre and post Revolutionary War. He looks out for h...
... middle of paper ...
... epitomize the American dream, or is he the antithesis of one?
Rip Van Winkle is the antithesis of the American Dream. He has no motivation to work hard at anything in life, and finds that socializing with neighbors is enough in life. He also does not seem to care about the fact that the Patriots won the Revolutionary War. The only thing that he seems to care about is that his nagging wife is dead.
Part 4:
I think that by Washington Irving using a narrator for the story, the reliability of this story is generally up in the air. And the reader has to figure that Rip Van Winkle was truly asleep for twenty years and didn’t just lie to escape his wife. Or that there was even a man who was carrying a keg of liquor up the mountains. By trusting the narrator, it adds a complexity to the story because the reader has to believe everything that they were told.
Protagonist Rip Van Winkle possesses mystical and entertaining characteristics that captivate the reader. Rip Van Winkle regards all of his neighbors with kindness continuously. He shows the depth of American values such as kindness and the love of the neighbor. Van Winkle’s great kindness is illustrated by his helping of others. On page 62, the narrator states “He inherited, however, but little of the martial character of his ancestors. I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; he was moreover a kind neighbor, and an obedient, henpecked husband,” confirming that Van Winkle is a kind person and a loving
A common idea throughout the United States is that a person is to work their hardest, notably, with some type of aspiration within their mind that they would like to achieve. With that being the case, even a virtually inescapable predicament is not considered to be a justification for the inability of achieving a personal goal or subjective goal that was passed to themselves from another person. Subsequently, within the short story “Rip Van Winkle,” the titular character has an absence of ambition within his life. Rather to hard work, he spends his days casually lazing about in the forest with his dog Wolf. As well as these actions resulting in frequent derision from his wife. Hence that Rip Van Winkle is antithetical to popular
In RIP Van Winkle, Dam Van Winkle is abusive, nagging, and sarcastic. In Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving states that “but what courage can with stand the ever-during and all besetting terrors of a woman’s tongue.” He seems to imply that he did not like women who gave their opinions and spoke their mind. It seems that Rip is going into the woods to escape his wife.
As intangible as it is elusive, the American Dream has always been an iconic symbol of the United States. Whether born on the West Coast, East Coast, or anywhere in between, the Dream has become the entitlement of every individual. Evolving from its traditional desires of a good home and plot of land, the Dream has become defined by grand-scale properties and materialistic possessions. As the Dream evolves and time passes, there are those who can’t seem the change with it. People find themselves trapped in the past, some desperate to stay, and others who will do anything to escape. Fitzgerald’s main character, Jay Gatsby, from The Great Gatsby is an example of the former, while Walter Younger, from Hansberry’s A Raisin in The Sun, plays the
Have you ever imagined being asleep in the forest for twenty years, coming back home and not knowing what has gone on all those years of your absence? Rip Van Winkle went through that, and had to come back home and face some real changes. The author Washington Irving has some interesting characters whom he puts in his short stories. Irving puts some characters in his short stories to reflect on some of his life. For example, Irving has similarities between Rip Van Winkle being asleep in the forest 20 years and Irving was in Europe for seventeen writing short stories and being the governor’s aid and military secretary. These two situations are similar, because they both didn’t know what they were going to come back too and were gone for such a long period of time. Irving does put some of his own life into his short stories and with a reason for his self-reflective works.
One particular criterion character effectively supports the central idea in “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving. The character's type develops with the personality development throughout the story. Three types of characters: round, flat, and stock, appear in most stories. The round character displays a fully developed personality and full emotions. Flat characters, also known as supporting characters, do not develop fully or express complex emotions. A stock character, also known as a stereotype, fits an established characterization from real life or literature. With these three types of characters leading the reader through the story, the reader learns the events taking place as well as the changes in the character’s lives. The author keeps the reader informed of the changes affecting the characters throughout the narrative through style. When a character undergoes a fundamental change in nature or personality during the story, the character has dynamic style. However, a character without change defines a static character. Although all characters have a style and type sometimes understanding the differences appears complicated. A chart often helps establish a better understanding of character type and style.
Rip Van Winkle was a man who traveled to the mountain to escape his nagging wife. Along his journey he encounters a few travelers and ends up drinking with them. He falls asleep on the mountain and wakes up twenty years later without realizing how much time has passed. When he wakes
... here.” (Steinbeck 65) When his wife and kids left, he lost his property, and started living in abandon homes and crooks by the river to stay away from the bankers, he was to proud to leave his home and even when the banks took it away from him, he still stays and fights, causing the men that run the tractors a hard time.
In “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving he writes about a simple man, Rip Van Winkle, who does just enough to get by in life. He lives in a village by the catskill mountains, and is loved by everyone in the village. He is an easy going man, who spends most of his days at the village inn talking with his neighbors, fishing all day, and wandering the mountains with his dog to refuge from his wife the thorn on his side. On one of his trips to the mountains Rip Van Winkle stumbles upon a group of men who offer him a drink, and that drink changes everything for Van Winkle. He later wakes up, twenty years later, and returns to his village were he notices nothing is the same from when he left. He learns that King George III is no longer in charge,
In an English interpretation, one could see Rip Van Winkle as the mother country or England. Rip is “a kind neighbor, and an obedient hen-pecked husband .” (430) To an English citizen reading this story, it could easily represent the English monarchy. For years before the revolution, America had defied the King by refusing to pay taxes; support the militia that was protecting it from the French, Spanish, and Indians; and in many ways hindering progress in the colonies. England could easily have been seen as “hen-pecked” in the ways in which it handled the colonies. Many of the tax acts, such as the Stamp act, were ignored and monarchy was viewed as inept in dealing with the colonies. The Crown levied no penalties against the colonist when these acts were defied. The Crown just accepted not getting the money.
Over the course of history, the American Dream has become the American Nightmare. The Dream has lost its original significance, and has now become less about achieving success through hard work, and more about material items and how much money a person has. This makes the American Dream unattainable because people are no longer satisfied with achieving one goal, they always want more. The American Dream is now a nightmare because people lose themselves in trying to attain the intangible Dream. As seen in The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, if a person loses himself in trying to achieve the American Dream, and gets caught up in the wealth, material items, and the lifestyle of modern-day America, there can be dire consequences, and for Gatsby and Willy, these consequences were death.
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 borrows an old European tale to make it take place in America. This tale related to the Dutch colonists haunts the kaatskill mountains. In order to highlight the American identity, Irving praises the “majestic” mountains which Europe lacks. He describes the mountains that “their summits…will glow and light up like a crown of glory” Nevertheless, the use of these ancient explorers into Rip Van Winkle only to show that although American has formed its own identity, no one can cut its connection with Europe. No wonder when America was still under tyranny of the British rule, some people still cannot cut the blood relationship with Europe. Therefore, the American identity is blurred by their relationship with Europe since then.
Washington Irving's, "Rip Van Winkle" presented a tale of a "dreamer." Rip Van Winkle was a family man
Rip Van Winkle tells the story of a man who, on a trek into the Kaatskill mountains, mysteriously sleeps away twenty years of his life during the Revolutionary War. When he returns home, he finds that things have dramatically changed; King George no longer has control over the colonies, and many of his friends have either died or left town. At this point, the story reaches its climax, where Van Winkle realizes that his life may be forever changed.
In conclusion, the American dream targeted the individual working hard in the pursuit to become successful and wealthy, with high-quality job and prosperity. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the American dream symbolizes being free from any kind of restrictions and the ability to have the pleasure in the wide-open Western edge. However, The Great Gatsby criticizes the American dream due to moral and social value decay of the society.