Washington Irving's Short Story 'Rip Van Winkle'

Improved Essays
Through Time Time is a manmade concept that is used to sequence events, to contrast the duration of events and/or the intervals between them, and to determine rates of change. In Washington Irving’s short story “Rip Van Winkle”, time plays a very important role since the protagonist, Rip Van Winkle, slept for 20 years. After he woke up, he noticed several things that were different from before such as the village he lives in, the people who live there, and the flag that represented what were once the colonies of Great Britain changed to the flag that symbolizes the free country of the United States of America. Rip Van Winkle acts as a tool that helps people recall the past, much like a time capsule. A time capsule is a historic cache of goods …show more content…
I would place either a saxophone (soprano/alto/tenor/baritone) or an electric keyboard because those are the instruments that I can play. I chose to put an instrument in the time capsule because knowing how innovative mankind is, we will somehow invent a device that can be played and make sounds from all existing instruments. Sheet music is included as well since people will eventually forget how to create a tasteful piece. I assume that not only will music change, but other forms of art will too, such as …show more content…
In the past few centuries, the printing of written works have not changed, but only the ideas behind these compositions which shows how much society has transformed and how people are viewing it. Ever since printing began however, the amount of trees that have been cut down for the purpose of being used as paper is tremendous. This has led to the loss of habitats for millions of species, extreme temperature swings, increased amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere, and many more. For these reasons, mankind will have to stop printing and find another way to present ideas and opinions to save the planet. I want to include a book so that once the time capsule has been opened, people can be reminded of how much printing has affected us and also the memories that come with this story/book. Books are not the only ones that carry memories with them, but other everyday objects as

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Different tools for remembering are discussed. In the course of time, a series of technologies have been created: the alphabet, scrolls, the printing press, photography, the computer, and the smartphone. Advancements in technology have made it progressively easier to externalize memories. Foer believes there is something great at stake by using technology to store memories instead of the brain. I agree with Feer’s concern.…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Constant flowing force “Tick Tock,” time is an everlasting, yet a constant flowing force. Imagine being a weak, ten-year-old African American boy, who is on a mission to find his father in a time where your race isn’t respected and your whole country is in a depression. The story “Bud, Not Buddy” would be a different story if written in modern area because Bud’s mom would still be living, he would have been caught when he ran away, he would have been forced into an education, and modern day rights would have affected the way he was treated. First off, Bud’s mom wouldn’t have died. Modern day advances in medicine and doctoring has ensured the fact of Bud’s mom’s survival.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    George Santayana, a Spanish philosopher, once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” However, this may not present itself to be a completely tragic philosophical fact. The separation of 400 years’ time between Christopher Columbus and Charles Lindbergh only separated these men, their ambitions, and experiences by a river instead of the ocean both experienced; their attempted accomplishments, experienced challenges, and essential skills flowing along the same paths and down the same bends. Lindbergh and Columbus had many comparable ambitions involved as they began their journeys. They took advantage of this opportunity of record travel to rise from their meager, unsuccessful places in society and gain riches…

    • 897 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bridging the Gap An Analysis of the Generation Gap Through World War II The past and the present often conflict. In life, young people tend to disregard history and past events labeling them as old and outdated. Conversely, older people tend to get stuck in the past and cannot keep up with the ever-changing present.…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    "A work of literature must provide more than factual accuracy or vivid physical reality... it must tell us more than we already know. " - E. M. Forster. This suggest that literature is successful when it reveals truths, even if it's not completely real. The part in the quote that states "it must tell us more then we already know. "…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Google defines time as “the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.” This view of time as a whole is evident in Octavia E. Butler’s novel, Kindred. Butler writes of a twenty-six-year-old African-American woman named Dana Franklin, of whom suddenly happens to gain the ability to travel back in time spontaneously. Dana travels through events of the antebellum south, and faces many harsh obstacles along the way. Dana's battle through many tough situations and her journey through the past could not have been even remotely survivable without her immense bravery.…

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Memory is what keeps the past alive, holding on to every detail or experience in someone’s lifetime. Memories are created and preserved, and often shared with others through storytelling. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the main character Offred preserves memories of her life and family prior to society’s transformation into a theocratic dystopia called Gilead. In The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas is given the ability to hold the memories of the past prior to the development of the dystopian society where everyone is alarmingly equal. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, soldiers carry memories of their lives prior to the war and emotional burdens from the war.…

    • 1945 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Rip Van Winkle is the story of a man who wanders off to get away from his nagging wife and sleeps for twenty years. He wakes up to find that the world has changed around him. The same…

    • 1027 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Satire In Rip Van Winkle

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Satire is a genre in literature while sometimes could be graphic and performing arts. Usually, satire is a comical piece of writing which authors would use humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule makes fun of an individual or a society to expose its stupidity and shortcomings in an indirect way. And its essential purpose is to put out constructive social criticism which uses wit as a weapon to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society. Moreover, writers expect that whom he criticizes for would improve and overcome the weakness. And fictional character is which stands for real people to expose and condemn their corruption in satire texts.…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He was willing to help all his neighbors but hated “any kind profitable labor”. Rip had a goood relationship with people and “was thought highly of by everyone except his wife”. Dame Van Winkle was a termagant and sharp-tongued woman who always blamed for Rip’s idleless and carelessness. She could teach Rip a lesson in any possible way and even the most respectable person could not be safe from her tongue. By comparison, it is obvious to see that the author approves of Rip’s lifestyle and character.…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Every one of us as kids loved reading myths such as Hercules or Perseus. However, did you know that there are some myths that originated right at home? Washington Irving’s story of Rip Van Winkle manages to merge several traits of a mythological story. The traits we will focus on include, setting the story in the past, filled with exaggerated characters, and features magical events with their consequences. How do these traits affect the story?…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rip Van Winkle as a Romantic Hero Rip Van Winkle is a short story written by Washington Irving which follows a lazy farmer named Rip, who enjoys helping everyone besides himself and his wife. Rip wanders off into the mountains one day and falls asleep, only to awaken after twenty years have passed. The author endows Rip with various characteristics that portray him as a Romantic Hero. Some of these qualities include being child-like and innocent, disliking women, and going on a journey in nature.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Symbolism In Rip Van Winkle

    • 2663 Words
    • 11 Pages

    From the very beginning, it is clear that “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving is a story that was written with the American people in mind. Written at a time when America was in a constant state of change, and as its citizens were struggling to form their own identities, “Rip Van Winkle” speaks to the alienation many Americans felt during the late 1700s and early 1800s. Fresh off of the American Revolution, America was trying to form its own identity as a country free from English culture and crown. Irving’s main character, Rip Van Winkle, symbolizes the struggle of early America from pre-revolution to post revolution. Through telling stories, Rip Van Winkle is able to create a feeling of being at home in the new world by connecting the old…

    • 2663 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How does Irving incorporate at least three of these mythical-story characteristics into "Rip Van Winkle"? What is the impact of these characteristics on the story or on the reader’s experience of the story? Two very good questions that will soon be answered. In this essay, You will learn about Rip Van Winkle; a man who loved nature and zoning out. You will also read the brilliant writing style of Washington Irving, and how it pulls the reader in.…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Victorian Time Travel

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages

    1890 Victorian England was a time and place where gentleman smoked their cigars in the light of a gas lamp and spoke about topics such as; the possibility of a fourth dimension. The time traveller lived in this world, a world where no one had thought time travel was possible, even through his efforts of trying to prove time travel possible, they continue to disbelieve it. The time traveller feels that as time goes on man should make great improvements to humanity, but, when he travels to the year 802,701 AD. he discovers that his own time seems as though its more advanced than the civilizations of the Eloi and Morlocks. After travelling through time, the time traveller discovers that the separation of man could be the fall of humanity.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays