Student Name: Hossein Abdi
Student Number: 4031431302
University Name: Azarbaijan Shahid Madani
Professor: Dr. Pouya asl
Essay question number one: Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle
-Critical analysis of the themes: time, tradition, change, national identity
-Author’s use of fantasy to express his attitude towards new American nation
-Rip’s long sleep; its metaphorical insight regarding the relationship of the individual and social
order
Introduction
When Washington Irving penned Rip Van Winkle in 1819, he created more than just an
entertaining folk tale. Beneath its whimsical surface lies a profound meditation on a nation
struggling to define itself after revolution. The story's protagonist, who famously sleeps through
the American Revolution, becomes an unwitting time traveler, confronting the startling
transformations of a new era. Through this simple yet brilliant narrative device, Irving captures
the psychological disorientation of a people caught between past and present, between colonial
subjecthood and American independence.
A Nation in Transition
The years following the American Revolution presented a peculiar challenge: how to forge a
distinct national identity from thirteen disparate colonies that had previously identified as British
subjects. Irving, writing several decades after independence, recognized that this transition was
neither clean nor complete. His fictional village in New York's Catskill Mountains serves as a
microcosm of this national transformation.
Before Rip's long sleep, the village embodies the rhythms of colonial life - quiet, predictable, and
firmly under British rule. The local inn displays the portrait of King George III, and villagers go
about their business with little concern for larger political matters. When Rip awakens twenty
years later, he finds this familiar world utterly transformed. The king's portrait has been replaced
by one of George Washington; the once-quiet inn buzzes with political debate; and the very
language of public life has changed, with unfamiliar terms like "election," "congress," and
"liberty" filling the air.
This dramatic shift mirrors the real experiences of many Americans who lived through the
Revolution. For some, particularly those who actively supported independence, the changes were
welcome and intentional. But for others - the apolitical, the indifferent, or those loyal to Britain -
the new order arrived as a disorienting shock. Irving's genius lies in making Rip represent this
second group, giving voice to those who experienced the Revolution not as active participants
but as bewildered observers.
The Weight of Time
Rip's twenty-year sleep creates a jarring temporal discontinuity that forces readers to confront the
nature of historical change. In reality, the transition from colony to nation occurred gradually,
through years of war and political experimentation. But for Rip, it happens in an instant - he
closes his eyes under British rule and opens them in the United States.
This narrative choice highlights how historical transformations often feel abrupt to those who
don't actively participate in them. Many real-life contemporaries of Irving - particularly older
Americans who remembered colonial times - might have shared Rip's sense of temporal
whiplash. The story suggests that political revolutions create not just new governments, but new
experiences of time itself. The colonial past becomes another country, accessible only through
memory and story.
The supernatural elements of the tale - the ghostly crew of Henry Hudson, the enchanted liquor -
serve to heighten this temporal dislocation. By framing Rip's experience as magical rather than
merely improbable, Irving emphasizes how thoroughly the Revolution had altered Americans'
relationship to their own history. The past becomes spectral, haunting the present but no longer
tangible or accessible.
Identity in Flux
Perhaps the story's most enduring insight concerns the fluidity of national identity. Rip's struggle
to find his place in the new order reflects a fundamental question of the post-Revolutionary
period: what does it mean to be an American?
Before his sleep, Rip's identity is clear - he's a subject of the British crown, albeit not a
particularly engaged one. His return presents him with a crisis of belonging. He's physically the
same person, but the world around him has changed so completely that he no longer recognizes
his place in it. Even his own home has become unfamiliar - his wife has died, his children are
grown, and his dog no longer knows him.
Americans had to invent new ways of understanding themselves. Irving shows this process as
both liberating and unsettling. The villagers eventually accept Rip, but only after verifying his
story through an old local who remembers him. This suggests that in the new America, identity
must be proven and performed, no longer simply inherited.
The Individual and Society
Rip's story reminds us that historical transformations are never evenly experienced. While the
nation moves forward collectively, individuals move at different paces - some eagerly embracing
change, others resisting it, and some, like Rip, sleeping through it entirely.
Irving's portrayal of Rip is notably ambivalent. On one hand, Rip embodies qualities that the new
republic supposedly rejected - indolence, apathy, and a lack of civic engagement. On the other,
there's something appealing about his refusal to conform to the new era's demands. His eventual
acceptance as a village storyteller suggests that even the most forward-looking societies need
connections to their past.
Conclusion
Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle, even now, is relevant because it captures a universal human
experience - the shock of confronting a changed world. While rooted in the specific historical
moment of post-Revolutionary America, its insights about time, change, and identity transcend
that particular context.
Two centuries after its publication, Rip Van Winkle continues to resonate because we all, at times,
feel like strangers in our own countries. Whether through technological change, political
upheaval, or cultural transformation, the ground keeps shifting beneath our feet. Irving's great
insight was that this experience, while disorienting, is also fundamentally human - and that
perhaps, like Rip, we can find ways to make ourselves at home in the new worlds we wake up to.
Cited works:
Irving, W. (1819). Rip Van Winkle. In The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Carey & Lea.
Brodwin, S. (1973). The humorous mask: Washington Irving's comic style. American Literature,
45(1), 89-96.
Burstein, A. (2007). The original Knickerbocker: The life of Washington Irving. Basic Books.
Ferguson, R. A. (1981). Rip Van Winkle and the generational divide in American culture. Early
American Literature, 16(1), 34-48.
