Verified Document

Tales From Varying Cultures Essay

Cross-Cultural; Study Plot

The plot of the fairytale of Rip Van Winkle is such that it moves from the current time in the tale, then skips twenty years ahead all crumped up in one night and back to the present time. RIP goes out into the woods and gets attracted by the spirits into their cave in the rocks where he gets drunk and passes out for the whole night. When he wakes up he finds himself not in the cave of the bearded and strange men but in the woods, in his hand a rusted gun and his Wolf dog missing, his clothes are tattered and his beards overgrown. When he returns to the village, things have changed, many buildings he knew yesterday were strange and the people in the village are all strange. It was upon enquiry and interacting with the people that he realizes he had actually been away for twenty years and he was presumed lost and dead. The plot of the fairytale transcends time and skips twenty years ahead to bring the social, economic, and most important the political changes that took place in that span of time, with the U.S.A. now being independent and no longer under the queen.

The plot of the Germany Folktale is quite similar to the American one since Peter...

He meanders in the strange world with strange people for a day and falls asleep only to wake up in the enclosed green space. When he ventures back to the village, he has beards that are longer than usual and he realizes that he had been away for twenty years.
Character

The main character in the fairy with American rots is Rip Van Winkle and I known to be a likable character such that he found favor with al women in the village. Rip loved to attend to other people's affairs before his own. Despite being such generous, he is depicted as one who is not keen to ensure his family is taken care of well as his farm is well attended to, he seemed to be keen on doing the work that the village women gave him and not his own work. He is depicted as a generally lazy person who would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound.

The main character in the German folktale is a herdsman and not a hunter as is in the American folktale. Unlike Rip who is depicted as lazy and only loves hunting squirrels, Peter is depicted as a…

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now