Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle"

This study will examine Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," focusing on how the story addresses the concept of the American Dream. Although the story is certainly ambiguous enough to be open to various interpretations in this context, the argument of the study will be that the story is meant to be a negative appraisal of the American Dream. However, the story is not a social, political, economic or otherwise ideological tract. The author is not intent on critiquing society as he sees it or as it is idealistically imagined in the American Dream. Instead, as all great literature is, the story contains and observes, with a compassionate heart, the plight of mortal human beings everywhere, in every land and every time, who must live their lives in far less than ideal circumstances, who must deal as best they can with such circumstances, who yearn for love or peace of mind or both, and who must then die.

There is, of course, much irony in comparing the story of a man who falls asleep for years and the view the story provides on the American Dream. At the same time, in making the connection, one must keep in mind that Rip Van Winkle himself is decidedly apolitical and that his falling asleep for years has more to do with his desire for rest and peace as an individual than as a creature of a particular society. He is, to the extent that his story and sleep touch all readers everywhere, Everyman, and not simply an American.

Rip is a lazy but good-hearted Dutch-American who liv

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adually declined and he fell into a deep sleep. On awaking he found himself on the green knoll from when he had first seen the old man of the glen (776). From that point forward, there are two parts to the story. First, Rip goes through the bewildering process of discovering and dealing with the fact that he has fallen asleep for twenty years. Then, he goes through the process, rather quickly, of settling into the life of laziness and leisure he had sought from the beginning of the story. In other words, he has apparently missed nothing of importance, at least not of importance to himself, in the twenty years in which he was asleep. Irving gives no indication that Rip has somehow suffered because he missed the entire Revolutionary War. The author shows no evidence that Rip stands for people who hide their heads in the sand in order to avoid commitment or war or standing up for their principles. Irving indicates at no point that somehow Rip should be judged or punished or should feel bad about himself because he has fallen asleep and missing the coming-into-nationhood of the colonies. Nowhere is there a sign that Rip cares about the American Dream or anything it has to offer or that he is lacking some quality of charac

Category: Literature - W