Rip Van Winkle: American Mythology

Rip Van Winkle, a short story by Washington Irving, is a timeless classic and an excellent example of an American mythology. The story is whimsical tale of an exceptionally lazy man who happens upon some mysterious men one day that give him a drink that causes him to fall asleep for 20 years. This story has characteristics that sufficiently meet the American mythology model. It is a story that is set in the past in the beautiful and descriptive setting of the Kaatskill Mountains. It has intriguing and markedly strange characters that significantly stand out; these characters include Rip Van Winkle, Dame Van Winkle, and the mysterious mountain men. And lastly, it has a component of a magical event when Rip Van Winkle comes across the strange

Further, the story starts at one point and ends 20 years later; this puts part of the story in the somewhat distant past. As far as the setting goes, the reader learns that it is in in the Kaatskill Mountains (Irving 61). Irving indicates that seasonal and time changes “produce some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains” (61). The mountains are further described as “fairy mountains.” (Irving 62). The town where Rip lives is at the bottom of these mountains and was originally a former Dutch colonial town (Irving 62). The setting and time period is clearly representative of an American mythology, but the characters really help shape the

He is a lazy man, but he is adored by the town people. The town’s children loved him because “he assisted at their sports, made their play things, taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghosts, witches, and Indians” (Irving 63). While he is lazy when it comes to responsibility, it sure seems he has enough energy to do everything else; as Irving writes, he has “an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor” (63). Irving really painted a vivid picture of his character, and with that the reader could see why Dame Van Winkle “henpecked” him all the time. Dame Van Winkle was clearly fed up with his idle ways and hated that he was so irresponsible when it came to the family interests. The strangest characters where the men in old Dutch clothes and long beards that he encountered on the mountain. Irving described them as “dressed in a quaint and outlandish fashion” (69). Rip knew something was not right with the situation as it was “the most melancholy part of pleasure he had ever witnessed”; nevertheless, it seemed like he didn’t have a way out of his circumstances (Irving