Hesitant to do much more than is necessary in life; Rip Van Winkle sleeps away twenty years of his life without missing a beat. “Surely,” thought Rip, “I have not slept here all night” (Irving 70). Washington Irving, author of “Rip Van Winkle”, takes readers on a journey through time and change. Irving created a national mythology in “Rip Van Winkle”, using strange and exaggerated characters, magical and mysterious events and a positive message about a nation that is changing. Rip Van Winkle is a man whose company is enjoyed by others in the village, “a great favorite of all the good wives of the village” (63) and “children of the village, too, would shout for joy whenever he approached” (63). His wife, Dame Van Winkle was, however, quite
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Furthermore, his gun is rusted, his dog is gone, and the gully with which he had helped the man with the keg, was now a mountain stream. Slowly, Rip makes his way back to the village where he find his house “fallen to decay” (72), the Village Inn had become the Union Hotel, Dame Van Winkle had died and the colonies were now the United States. It is there at the Union Hotel that Rip comes to the realization he had slept for some twenty years. Irving takes the reader through this series of discoveries to help the reader to share in Rip’s emotional reaction to these revelations, “its twenty years since he went away from home with a gun” (76). The people of the village take Rip in without hesitation, he happens upon his daughter and she brings him home. Likewise, Irving shows Rip’s homecoming in a hopeful light, as if he had never been gone. In fact, he is able to return to his idle ways, without fear of repercussion from Dame Van Winkle. Rip Van Winkle, is a man who wants to avoid confrontation and revels in the positive. Irving walks up through a life’s story of a man who simply wanted to be. Of course, he was not looking for strife and enjoyed a more laid back existence. Irving used the exaggerated character of Dame Van Winkle to help connect the reader to Rip emotions throughout the story, he then created a magical place in the amphitheater
Furthermore, his gun is rusted, his dog is gone, and the gully with which he had helped the man with the keg, was now a mountain stream. Slowly, Rip makes his way back to the village where he find his house “fallen to decay” (72), the Village Inn had become the Union Hotel, Dame Van Winkle had died and the colonies were now the United States. It is there at the Union Hotel that Rip comes to the realization he had slept for some twenty years. Irving takes the reader through this series of discoveries to help the reader to share in Rip’s emotional reaction to these revelations, “its twenty years since he went away from home with a gun” (76). The people of the village take Rip in without hesitation, he happens upon his daughter and she brings him home. Likewise, Irving shows Rip’s homecoming in a hopeful light, as if he had never been gone. In fact, he is able to return to his idle ways, without fear of repercussion from Dame Van Winkle. Rip Van Winkle, is a man who wants to avoid confrontation and revels in the positive. Irving walks up through a life’s story of a man who simply wanted to be. Of course, he was not looking for strife and enjoyed a more laid back existence. Irving used the exaggerated character of Dame Van Winkle to help connect the reader to Rip emotions throughout the story, he then created a magical place in the amphitheater