Margaret Atwood's The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

“When you say 'fear of the unknown', that is the definition of fear; fear is the unknown, fear is what you do not know, and it's genetically within us so that we feel safe. We feel scared of the woods because we're not familiar with it, and that keeps you safe.” – M. Night Shyamalan Since the beginning of the society, the forest has been portrayed as a place filled with darkness, and inhabited by the devil and other unworldly creatures. The rumors that were formed about what could be lurking in the forest were created to fill the void of knowledge of what was in the woods and to give them something to believe in. In reality, what lurked in the forest was still unknown to most people. The mystery of the forest was what people were so scared of. …show more content…
For a long period of time the forest was the epitome of the unknown, so it was often the focus of American Gothic writing. This writing tried to demonstrate that the forest was where evil lived, and that entering would only lead to finding an unholy being and in turn being surrounded by everything that is evil. This was always set up by depicting the forest as dark and gloomy place, where evil would be at all times. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow the forest and many other areas, “were thickly shaded by overhanging trees, which cast a gloom about it, even in the daytime; but occasioned a fearful darkness at night” (Irving). These were the places where the fabled Headless Horseman roamed. The woods always warned people to stay away even in the daytime. The author tried to use the woods to represent a place that the deep dark evils of the forest could exist at all times, even in the