Rip Van Winkle Research Paper
In his desperation, and thanks to not having any copyright infringement laws back hen, he was able to successfully steal the plot and idea of the work and change things around into ultimately his own work. The main character, Rip Van Winkle, lived in a small Dutch town in New York before the revolution, while still a British Colony, under the rule of King George Ill. Rip is described as someone that is a good person who was very friendly with everyone and the majority of the people in his town liked him. If anyone ever need help was ready to help them at any given time, regardless of who they were.
Whenever he went, he would accompany himself with his go named Wolf, crowds of children would follow him like an entourage, and other dogs wouldn’t even as much bark at him. One thing about Rip was that he had no motivation to succeed or to help out around his own house, including for him to take care of his own family. His biggest problem was his wife, Dame Van Winkle, because she would constantly nag and complain to Rip about his ways. One autumn day he had enough of his wife’s torment and had decided to get away from his wife for some peace.
He took his dog Wolf and his rifle with him and headed into the Catskill Mountains. While in the mountains, he eared a man calling his name for help. He did not recognize the man, but noticed the man was wearing older style Dutch clothing and attempting to carry a keg. Rip being the helpful man he is decided to help this man carry his keg towards its destination in the woods. Upon arrival of the kegs destination, Rip finds more men who are also in older style Dutch clothing having a party and playing nine-pins (bowling).
Rip joins them in their festivities, and also begins drinking the alcohol contained within the keg he helped carry. Eventually Rip begins feeling very sleepy and before he even realizes it, he asses out. When he woke up, he noticed that the men in the older style Dutch clothing are gone, as well as his dog. He also noticed that he had a ridiculously long beard that seemed to be abnormal growth for 1 night, and that his rifle was extremely rusted, which is also abnormal for 1 night.
He didn’t give it too much thought, because he was afraid of what his wife might do or say to him for his absence yesterday and not coming home until the following day. He rushed back towards his small Dutch town only to notice that everything around him looked totally different than yesterday. There was no longer a hot of King George Ill, instead there was a photo of George Washington. Every person that resided in the village also looked different, and children did not gather around him and dogs would bark at him like he was a stranger. He was so confused and had no idea of what was going on.
He told people who he was, and found out that there is another man that lives in this town whose name is Rip Van Winkle. Rip was directed by the town’s people to meet this other man, and found out that it was his son Rip Van Winkle II. His son was a full grown man, and told him that he had been missing for 20 years. He earned that his wife had passed away a long time ago, and nobody knew of what happened to Rip ever since the day he went to the Catskills Mountains. This led to Rip telling everyone his story of what happened that day, from the moment he left home to the moment he passed out.
When some of the town’s people heard this story, he was told about the legend of Henry Hudson and his ghosts. The story was that Henry Hudson and his ghosts visit the Hudson Valley once every 20 years. Many people believed that the man he met in the mountains was the ghost of Henry Hudson, and the other men were the ghosts of his crew. They also believed that Rips spirit may have been with Henry Hudson and his crew for the 20 years that he was asleep, and his spirit returned to his body when Henry Hudson and his ghosts returned to the Hudson Valley.
Rip was pretty much in shock and disbelief and learned that during the 20 years he was asleep, a lot had changed. For starters, the country was no longer under British rule, and that it had fought against England and after winning Declared its Independence. Other than his son, Rip also met his full grown daughter, Judith Gardener, who was now married. Judith took Rip into her home so he had a place to live. After becoming use to what had happened, he continued living the style of life he lived before his 20 year sleep.
Other than all of the changes that went around over the past 20 year, the best thing for Rip was the fact that he no longer had to worry about his wife. Annotated Bibliography Woman, Sarah. “Washington Erving’s Rip Van Winkle: A Dangerous Critique Of A New Nation. ” Nag 23. 4 (201 0): 216-222. Literary Reference Center. Web. 30 Cot. 2013. Literature has been among America since the beginning, including when was known as “The New World”. As the New World began and continued to go wrought its phases of change, the literature was changing as well.
American literature has existed since prior to the freedom of America itself. Even after the American Colonies became the united States of America, the literature within America had continued to evolve and grow. Due to its long existence, creative American literature was able to create somewhat of a mark or impression globally. However; it still hadn’t been able to acclaim itself with an established global identity. American Literature began experiencing its global thrive and success when a new styles of writings through a new generation of alienated writers (geniuses, artists, poets, authors) around the 1 ass’s.
