Lakin
Justin Lakin
ENGL-2035-W03
Prof. Laura Burridge
June 11, 2024
Module 1 Writing Assignment
Rip Van Winkle is something of the prototypical “man out of time”. Washington Irving's story
of the lovable, work-averse Dutch-American farmer is a classic piece of early American literature, and
has entered the common lexicon as a slang term for someone behind on the times. While modern
readers may be keen to interpret Rip as a self-centered & lazy good-for-nothing, it is important to note
that this was not the author's intent, nor the historical view of the character himself. Rather, Rip is
meant to be seen in a sympathetic light.
Firstly, Rip is presented as a good-natured fellow who is well-liked among his neighbors. He is
popular with the wives and children of the village, often performing small errands for the local women
or regaling children with ghost stories & other tall tales. He is a frequent fixture at the local assemblage
outside the town's inn. Rip is meek and easy going, features that make it easy for a reader to
sympathize with him, especially when contrasted to the domineering “shrewish” nature of Dame Van
Winkle, who while sympathetic in her own right, is depicted as the story's antagonist.
Secondly, while Rip is depicted as aimless and work averse, it is not out of laziness, rather, he is
described as “one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy,
eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve
on a penny than work for a pound.” (Irving, Washington. The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
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1st American ed., C.S. Wiley & Sons, 1819.) Rip is not seen to be wholly unproductive, idling away his
time fishing, hunting, and performing odd jobs. As the reader should be familiar with already, it was
one such hunting trip that led to the sequence of events that make up our story in the first place.
Finally, following his awakening in the forest and return home, Rip is shown to be completely
out of place. Much had occurred during the twenty years he'd been asleep. Many of his neighbors have
either grown older, left the village, or had passed away entirely. The country he had settled was no
longer a colonial possession of Great Britain, but was in the grips of the Revolutionary War. Many of
the village's new inhabitants bore English names, and brought with them a more energetic, fast-paced
life that seemed at odds with the previous slow, rustic ways of the Dutch village. With his antiquated
clothes and long, gray beard, Rip seemed just as strange to the people around him as the world seemed
to him.
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Works Cited
Irving, Washington. The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. 1st American ed., C.S. Wiley
& Sons, 1819.
