Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
The only difference is how the legend is carried and manipulated through subsequent generations. Unfortunately, such a sanguine point-of-view does not hold up either. Because the legend itself is regional in nature, the tale of the headless horseman conveys the sinister application of rhetorical devices used to exile the spirit of Americanism. If it were a legend, then the legend would have carried out beyond its geographical area.
Moreover, the legend itself read like propaganda more so than an actual tale, considering how the story applied scare tactics against ambitious fellows, such as Crane, who intended to infiltrate the secret society of the Van Tassel's. For example, towards the ending of the story, you get the impression that the narrator knows more then he lets on. He goes on to report the suppositions of the old country wives, segues into Brom Bones's suspicion grin, and then wraps up with a generalization about the placidity of Sleepy Hollow. Each designated character in the story pleads ignorance, and we are forced to resolve on our own guesses. Considering the last stroll we witnessed of Crane's journey back home...
It is then that we begin to sympathize, but right before he becomes a real person he is discarded from the story, swiped away from existence as he began speculating what that journey was really all about.
Works Cited
Donald Anderson. "Irving's the Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Explicator 61:4 (2003):
Anthony, David. "Gone Distracted": "Sleepy Hollow," Gothic Masculinity, and the Panic of 1819." Early American Literature| 40:1: 24 April 2008. http://www.wf2dnvr6.webfeat.org-15888487.pdf
Piacentino, Ed. "Sleepy Hollow' comes south: Washington Irving's influence on old southwestern humor." Southern Literary Journal| 30:1 (2007): 24 April 2008. http://wf2dnvr6.webfeat.org-350540.pdf
Plummer, Laura; Nelson, Michael. "Girls can take care of themselves': Gender and storytelling in Washington Irving's 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Studies in Short Fiction 30:2: 24 April 2008 http://wf2dnvr6.webfeat.org-9511241790.pdf
Pollard, Finn. "From Beyond the Grave and Across the Ocean: Washington Irving and the Problem of Being a Questioning American." American Nineteenth Century History 81.21 (2007): 24 April 2008. http://wf2dnvr6.webfeat.org-24154127.pdf
Works Cited
Donald Anderson. "Irving's the Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Explicator 61:4 (2003):
Anthony, David. "Gone Distracted": "Sleepy Hollow," Gothic Masculinity, and the Panic of 1819." Early American Literature| 40:1: 24 April 2008. http://www.wf2dnvr6.webfeat.org-15888487.pdf
Piacentino, Ed. "Sleepy Hollow' comes south: Washington Irving's influence on old southwestern humor." Southern Literary Journal| 30:1 (2007): 24 April 2008. http://wf2dnvr6.webfeat.org-350540.pdf
Plummer, Laura; Nelson, Michael. "Girls can take care of themselves': Gender and storytelling in Washington Irving's 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Studies in Short Fiction 30:2: 24 April 2008 http://wf2dnvr6.webfeat.org-9511241790.pdf
Pollard, Finn. "From Beyond the Grave and Across the Ocean: Washington Irving and the Problem of Being a Questioning American." American Nineteenth Century History 81.21 (2007): 24 April 2008. http://wf2dnvr6.webfeat.org-24154127.pdf
Washington Irving uses borrowed material from the Dutch and German's to create stories of his own. Washington Irving was born in the year that America became officially recognized by England as an independent country. He spent much of his life in Europe so it is not surprising that some of his greatest literary work should imitate the people and countries of the continent. Even so, much of his work also
In this way, the young people used the superstitious beliefs dictated by the status quo to introduce a new way of life: love before marriage and marriage by choice. The idea of dichotomy between the old and the new is substantiated via various other aspects within the story as well. One of these is the traditions that the Baron enjoys: he has inherited that traditions and habits attached to his
Sleepy Hollow Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" begins as a lot of stories do from the 1800s. There is a quiet and peaceful small town with a wealthy family and all the activities of the townsfolk surround them. The town, according to the narrator is noted for being calm and serene, that is how the little village got the name Sleepy Hollow. The only thing that upsets this personality
Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving [...] why Sleepy Hollow is such a quaint and yet haunted place. Is Sleepy Hollow the perfect setting for this story? Why? Sleepy Hollow seems far too bucolic to house fantastic legends like the Headless Horseman, and yet, it is such a perfectly serene setting, why wouldn't a ghost want to spend eternity there? The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Sleepy Hollow sounds like the
Melville and Irving The dawn of the American nation brought with it a need for a decidedly American culture, one depicted with careful precision by many of the authors that came to paint the literary landscape of the new magnate across the Atlantic. Washington Irving, the first American great, told the story of the nascent, colonial United States through youthful folklore limned with great detail and attention to the inner workings
As the two protagonists battle wits, a subplot becomes evident: choices must be made between the old order and the new order. The sturdy Brom Bones, with his practical, quaint Dutch upbringing, is a cog in a hole (or the whole, that is the village). Brom fits Tarry Town, and his rowdy mischievous nature functions as a pleasant diversion in the quiet little village. Brom represents the virtues of the