Washington Irving's American Mythology

A mythology is a collection of stories that mirror and celebrate the country’s ideas. A national mythology helps unite the people of a country and allows them to view themselves as a part of a unique culture. Some of the most important features of a mythology are that it draws attention to the nation’s beliefs and goals, praises its adventurers’, and remembers the country’s most important historical events. Mythologies are often set in the past, filled with bizarre and exaggerated characters, contains impressive, odd, heroic, events and their outcomes, and lastly, they acquire a positive message about the country and its people. An example of a mythology would be “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving. This American mythology is about a …show more content…
The setting and plot are connected together due to the Catskill Mountains. Although the whole story revolves around the mountains since that is where they live, the mountains are also where Rip went to escape his wife Dame where the trouble all began. On page 61 it gives information about the Catskill Mountains “They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is perfectly fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits”. That quote makes the reader feel like the mountains are to be trusted and that nature can be used to tell the weather. As the story goes on it gives you hints that there’s something suspicious going …show more content…
Whether it is good or bad we all go through change and have to accept it. Rip accepted his wife’s death, he accepted that life went on without him, accepted that he missed the chance to see his children grow up along with the new society. Another theme would be avoiding duties. That can have negative and positive impacts as well. For Rip, I think there were more positives than negatives when it came to avoiding duties in the long run. Of course in the beginning when he was avoiding to tend his own yard or such his wife would nag him but towards the end, while he was asleep he avoided a lot. Not seeing his children grow up was a very gloomy event, but he missed all the political occurrences with the war. Since he was lazy he didn’t have to choose sides either and even got to sleep for so long that his wife died. Therefore skipping responsibilities can have its rewards and