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Contradicting Values In Rip Van Winkle, By Washington Irving

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Washington Irving published, “Rip Van Winkle,” four years after the War of 1812, which was just part two of the Revolutionary War. The concept of the Revolutionary War was for the colonies to win their freedom from Britain. After the colonies won their freedom they started to focus on who they were as a country and nationalism. Most of the colonists concluded having the freedom for the purist of happiness: hard work, freedom, being able to choose your own job, and education. Irving gives readers the portrayal of Rip Van Winkle, who is in a morally grey area and ends up contradicting values set up in post-revolutionary America. Rip Van Winkle is considered very popular among everyone in town expect his wife, “The children of the village,
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“The Devil and Tom Walker” written by Washington Irving, is a story that takes place in New England in the 1720’s. A major part of the story is satire as it is displayed all throughout the work. Satire is writing that ridicules or criticizes. Religion, marriage, and the white establishment are three different elements of society that are criticized throughout the story with satire. Religion and religious types are criticized through satire by Irving in the story.

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In the short story “the devil and Tom walker” written by Washington Irving, he likes to poke fun at marriages. Irving uses the marriage of Tom and his wife as an example of how much he looks down upon marriages. Irving uses satire to criticize the existence of marriage and people who marry. Through observing the walkers, Irving demonstrates the way he sees marriage in a negative way, Tom won’t sell his soul and he even feels he should cheat, as well as at the end his wife is missing and he becomes happy about it and praises the person who did this.

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The writings by Washington seemed as though only the head females were the ones that had the darker personalities. In Rip Van Winkle, Irving tells the readers that a great deal of the woman wanted to have Rip. The difference between these women and the woman he was already married to was that these other women were a great deal nicer, and would not abuse Rip the way she did. Moreover, after thinking for a while, I had a realization that maybe Washington had not had the greatest relationships with women. He might have always had the abusive wife who always found a way to yell at him, accordingly having seen all of these other women being extraordinarily kind to anybody around them.

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Washington Irving, in his story The Devil and Tom Walker, written in 1824, is seen as critical of many aspects of society. Through the use of satire, Irving criticized the institution of marriage, religion, and the “white establishment”. In what way does Irving take on organized religion? Irving describes Deacon Peabody as “an eminent man, who had waxed wealthy by driving shrewd bargains with the Indians.

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“Rip Van Winkle” and the Emergence of an American Mythology. By Danise Bachman Rip van winkle in indeed a classic piece of American mythology. Washington Irving set this story in the past and filled it with exaggerated and sometimes, strange characters. It also features a mysterious and magical occurrence that put the main character to sleep for twenty years!

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Irving’s Character Alikeness Biographical and short story writer, Washington Irving is known for his works “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” However, he does have additional short stories. Between 1819 and 1820, Washington Irving published The Sketch Book, which was made up of approximately 30 short stories. Within those works were characters such as John Bull, Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, and several other unnamed characters. Now, the nameless characters in Washington Irving’s tales had just as deep impacts in their stories as named characters; from those deep impacts came about noticeable character resemblances between those characters.

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Washington Irving’s, The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. is a collection of thirty-four of his essays and short stories. Attributed to the fictional Dutch historian character, Diedrich Knickerbocker, are two of Irving’s most popular stories, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Rip Van Winkle is the story of a Dutch villager, living at the foot of the Catskill mountains before and after the American Revolutionary War. Van Winkle is genuinely loved by the people of his village, especially by the children whom he tells ghost stories to, plays with, and gives toys. However, this simple, easy-going man has one great error in his character: he is incredibly lazy, despising work in all forms.

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Imagery is defined as the use of “figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas” in a way to “appeal to our physical senses” (LiteraryDevices Editors). Washington Irving is an American author during the early ages of an independent America. Taking place before and after the American Revolution, Irving offers offers a unique perspective on small American towns. Throughout his short story Rip Van Winkle, Irving incorporates the element of imagery to connect the audience to the setting, relate the character to the audience, and enhance the reader's experience. Irving writes as the main character, Rip Van Winkle.

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Misogyny is the dislike of, contempt for, or prejudice of women; Washington Irving has been accused of misogyny because of the treatment of women in his stories and their content. Washington Irving was a writer during the 1800’s, and some of his most popular works include “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Within these tales and other works of Irving’s, aspects of misogyny is discernible, though there is debate about whether the author himself was a misogynist. I believe that the misogyny that is shown throughout a select few of Irving’s works is due in part to the time period, not entirely Irving, himself.

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Rip Van Winkle pursues a very seldom lifestyle with no pursuit and no ambition. He displays almost no willingness to change from his traditional ways after realizing the American colonies were independent from British Tyranny. He even still accepts the rule of King George III when he enters the town greeting the towns people with saying he is a loyal subject of the king. The reader can see his total disembodiment from the situation when the narrator says “instead of being a subject of his Majesty George the Third, he was now a free citizen of the United States. Rip, in fact, was no politician;

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Hugh S. Dawson also added some thoughts to the ideas of Young, Fetterley and Fiedler about Rip Van Winkle that Rip Van Winkle being Gothic story once more shows the advantage of marriage to avoid from wasting life in impenetrable forest [6, 14/08/2015]. Another bestseller work of Washington Irving is “The Spectre Bridegroom” that also included in “The Sketch Book by Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.”. If Irving in “Rip Van Winkle” headed to mix the physical and metaphorical dream reflecting the sigh of freedom in colony, in this work he brought the new American breath to the old Europe. Unlike other works, Irving described the happened events in Germany. All these hinted at that Irving wanted to ruin the old fences around Europe that formulated for many years.

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Both of his stories, such as “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” showed an interesting example of Irving’s style.”(Paul Reuben)”, “Most critics agree that these stories served as models for the modern American short story and that both stories introduced imagery that helped the national literature (American literature article, section 6). Irving was the first young author to produce a piece of American Literature that was very popular with many

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In this story, Washington Irving characterizes Rip as a lethargic man, and from my understanding his character is the antithesis of Benjamin Franklin. Rip Van Winkle is a complete contradiction of Benjamin Franklin in almost all aspects of life. Benjamin Franklin was wealthy, ambitious, hardworking, and detailed man who was one of the founding fathers. While Rip lacks motivation, drive for success, and structure in his life.

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1. Introduction This research paper deals with Washington Irving's most famous short story Rip Van Winkle, which tells the story of a man, who falls into a magical sleep during the English colonial time and wakes up twenty years later as a citizen of the United States of America. It will be looked into the characteristics that make Rip Van Winkle a Romantic piece of literature and how Washington Irving's intentions are reflected in his writing. 
Hereby Washington Irving’s life itself will be taken into consideration together with the Romantic period to demonstrate how these two domains are combined in Rip Van Winkle. 2.

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In novels focusing on parody of European attributes of romanticism Washington Irving created the unexampled masterpieces. “Rip Van Winkle” being one of the unexampled works of Washington Irving combines gentle and perfect humor. This story is Irving’s imaginative reworking of an old German tale in which his valuable parody professionally covered. In the story Washington Irving gave the national shade to the description of events and outlandish beings for America.

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