Differences Between Rip Van Winkle And America

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The differences between the village before and after Rip Van Winkle’s sleep is interesting. Before he fell into a deep slumber, his village was smaller than the village he see’s after 18-20 years. The village now contains more houses and new faces. The nature of the people have also changed, they are more lively than the inhabitants of the past. He finds his house to be abandoned and decayed while the tree near the inn turned into a flagpole with image of General Washington. Most of the people Rip knew were either dead like Nicholas Vedder and Dame, or fighting in the war like Van Bummel. While the changes are significant, Irving could be comparing and contrasting America and Great Britain through them. In the story, Rips wife, Dame Van Winkle,