Contemporary Rural America Captured in Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of

Contemporary homespun America Captured in hang-up train Winkle and The Legend of sleepy-eyed Hollow Most Americans believably believe our ms are different from Washington Irvings era. by and by all, almost 200 years have passed, and the differences in technology and urbane liberties alone are huge. However, these dissimilarities seem merely surface ones. When reading overstretch Van Winkle and The Legend of sleepy-eyed Hollow, I find that the being Irving creates in each story is very familiar to the one in which I grew up. The players may have changed, and institutions have mostly replaced roles traditionally interpreted on by people, just now the overall pieces still fit the countrified biographystyle of contemporary America. Perhaps the biggest variation from life in these stories and life today in the small town concerns the role of the Van Tassels. As the bombastic family in Sleepy Hollow, they serve as the social center. Baltus Van Tass el has more the air of an English country squire during harvest time than he does an American farmer. He is hearty, down to earth, and full of largesse (Sleepy Hollow 549, 556-557). The quilting frolic (553) is really a potluck dance. This type of conjunction gathering continued throughout American history in uncouth areas. We have barn-raisings, fall festivals, holiday celebrations. However, the nature of the gatherings has changed in that the role of the prominent family now goes to the city or civic groups (such as a church). Rural America still has wealthy families and farmers, except rarely do they heart-to-heart their homes to the community for dancing and potlucks. The closest we still see of this is the ranch barbeque, but the outside nature makes it far less intimate. In my experience, these events are... ...ture of King George in economic rent Van Winkle. Rip returns to his village twenty years subsequently he left and realizes that someone has transformed the King into George Washington (541). Irving, realizing that much(prenominal) of life is merely a refashioning of the same ideas and structures into something that looks new, has taken an old German folk tale and turned it into a story of American life. We may live in a time with vastly different resources, technologies, and opportunities, but the urges that drive us are still the same. Works CitedIrving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The American Tradition in Literature. Vol 1. Eds. George Perkins, et al. 7th ed. New York McGraw-Hill, 1990 544-563. 2 vols.---. Rip Van Winkle. The American Tradition in Literature. Vol 1. Eds. George Perkins, et al. 7th ed. New York McGraw-Hill, 1990 533-544. 2 vols.