“Twilight of the Books” By Caleb Crain & “Reading for Pleasure is in Painful Decline” By Stephen L. Carter. In this essay, I will be Supporting my Claim on the best and the more intelligently Written Passage on Readers of America. Both Texts support the claim of the decrease in readers in America along with Reasoning’s as to why this may be the start to something hazardous to our society.
Often times, it is seen that certain themes in literature throughout the years is influenced by the society and current events of the era that would make the author inspired to write about such events. In the 1950’s during McCarthyism, also known as “The Second Red Scare,” hundreds of Americans, especially those that practiced the arts such as acting, singing and writing would be in danger of being accused without any evidence to be able to restrict any political complaints or any way of speaking out towards the government. These times were hard for authors such as Arthur Miller, in which they would have to face the risk of creating mediocre literature in exchange for peace or face the consequences of being blacklisted and being banned from
This spark turned into a roaring flame as writers such as Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, and Edwin Arlington Robinson began writing their interpretations of American society. Robinson, a prominent
" The New York Public Library Book of Popular Americana. 1st ed. 1994. eLibrary.
“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!
Brett Lefler Fletcher English II 18 May 2018 Finals Research Essay Fiction books maybe removed from the curriculum as a whole. That has to do with the school board not seeing their true value. Fiction books can have an effect on the people who read them. Whether it be positive, or negative, fiction books can be just as important as nonfiction books can be. Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, for example, is set in a future where, about fifty years prior to the story, the populace gave up books and had most of them burned.
The Americans begin to create a new culture because they wanted to be unique. One of the cultures that they created was literature this all started in the early 1800's Washington Irving was one of the authors he the novel called " The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Another author was William Cullen Bryant he was from Massachusetts and he known to write poetry that was about love natural beauty. One of his poems is called, “Thanatopis”. The text states, " In it, he suggested that by studying nature, people could better understand life and death", which this was about the poem Thanatopis.
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.
An addict from a Persian-Jewish family struggles with his addiction to drugs and steals from his family, who are struggling with their own personal issue. BRIEF SYNOPSIS SAM RAHIMZADEH (26) comes from a proud Persian-Jewish family. He's addicted to Xanax and has been in rehab twice. He seems to have no real direction in his life. He believes everyone has “fucked” him over and he wants to fuck them back.
Over the course of this week we read two works of writing. One is the short story “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving in 1819. The other is Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. These two stories are pinnacle pieces of literature. One being a well known fictional work through the United States, the other is the writing of and by one of America’s Founding Fathers.
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.
In the 1800’s, America was the subject of many romantic visions and musings. The British and East Coasters alike saw everything west of Appalachia as a wild wonderland: home to cowboys, adventure, and opportunity. Oscar Wilde, a renowned British author and satirist, voyaged across America to test the truth of these claims. Afterwards, he published his findings and opinions in a piece known as Impressions of America. In the piece, he makes it clear that America did not live up to his expectations, and would disappoint his readers as well.
The Great American Dream is an ideal that states through hard work and dedication, every American citizen has the opportunity to accomplish personal goals and achieve success. The amount of effort put forth to obtain these goals, and achieve individualized success is decided upon by that citizen. Some of the more common goals and successes are ownership of property, obtaining wealth, enjoying liberties, experiencing patriotism, and raising a family. In “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving, the main character Rip is able to obtain the Great American Dream through laziness. Washington Irving satirizes the Great American Dream in his short story, and in this paper I will analyze how “Rip Van Winkle” can be read as a parody.
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.
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.
