Rip Van Winkle

Rackham, Arthur. Rip Van Winkle. Arthur
     Rackham's Illustrations to Rip Van
     Winkle, www.artpassions.net.
     Web. 11 December 2010 

     Rip Van Winkle is a simple story about a man who falls asleep for twenty years, then wakes up only to find that the whole world around him has changed.

     In an old Dutch village, in an old town at the bottom of the Kaatskill Mountains, there lived a good man named Rip Van Winkle. Rip was a man who was loved by his neighbors. In fact, all the village wives loved him too. Whenever his wife would get upset with him, they would immediately take his side. He was also adored by all the children. It was told that he could never go into to town without being completely surrounded by him.
     Rip had one MAJOR weakness. He hated labor. He had absolutely no drive to do any work for himself. Right now you're thinking, "What a lazy man!", but that is not the case. Whenever his neighbors would ask him for help, whatever it may be, he gladly helped. But when it came time for him to work on HIS house or HIS farm, it was a lost cause even bothering to ask him. The reason behind this is that whenever he tried working at home, things always went wrong, always.
     As you could imagine, his wife was highly annoyed with this 'little' flaw of his. She would constantly complain to the family about his laziness. Because of his wives constant nagging, Rip was afraid to come home. The poor dog was even afraid of this woman. When things when get real bad, Rip would just leave home and meet up with some of his buddies. They would discuss the town's gossip and the tell each other stories. Every once and a while they would get a newspaper and flip through talking about some of its writings. There were two main men in these discussions. The first being the town's schoolmaster, Derrick Van Bummel, and the second being Nicholas Vedder, the town's inn landlord. The schoolmaster would read the paper and Nicholas would give his opinion of the readings. In order to interpret his opinions, you would have to watch how he smoked his pipe. If he was angry about something, he would blow puffs of smoke often. If he was happy, he would smoke slowly and blow smoke clouds. Let's not forget about Mrs. Van Winkle. She was not shy about finding the men and wearing Rip out there in front of all the men. Would that happened, he would normally gather his gun and his dog and head to the woods. There he would sit under a tree and he and his dog would snack. - This poor, poor man -
     There was one specific day when he went on one of these walks where he lost track of where he was going and ended up on one of the highest point of Kaatskill. He had had a busy day of hunting and lost track of time. He realized that it was getting late and decided that his wife was probably very angry. He gathered his things and he and his dog started their trip back. Before he got too far he heard his name being called. He looked around and saw a man carrying something heavy. Rip was hesitant about helping the man but continued anyway. The two ended up talking and sharing a keg. On their journey home, they came across an amphitheatre. Upon their entry, they found a group of men playing a local village game. Rip and the man joined the others and had a few more drinks with the group. As the night went on, the drinks kept flowing. Rip had so many the he eventually fell into a deep sleep. He awoke the next morning on the very same mountain he was the day before. He sat up and tried to remember what had happened the night before, suddenly he remember the drinking and instantly became angry. He was angry because he assumed that the men had gotten him drunk so that they could rob him. He got up and tried to find the theatre, he had no luck so decided it was best just to head on home.
     On his way into town, he was having a problem recognizing people. Everyone looked and dressed differently than he remembered. When he arrived at his village, that too looked different. It was larger than he remembered and nobody looked familiar to him. He came across a group of people who were discussing voting. A man noticed him and started questioning Rip. They suggested that he was a spy and tried to arrest him. Once things calmed down Rip started asking the questions. He asked where the landlord was, he died eighteen years prior. He inquired about Van Bummel, he went off to war and never returned home. When Rip heard these answers he became down and asked if anyone knew Rip Van Winkle. They all answered yes and pointed to a man leaning against a tree. Rip noticed that the an they were pointing at looked about the same age as he did when he made his journey up the mountain. Suddenly a woman came through the crowd to Rip. She said her name was Judith. Rip asked what her father's name was, she replied, "Rip Van Winkle" but that he had been missing for twenty years. When asked about her mom she told him that she had died. Rip then told Judith that he was her father. She took him back to the farm where she still lived. It was there that Rip Van Winkle lived 'happily ever after'.


Sources:

Irving, Washington. "Rip Van Winkle." The Oxford Book 
     of American Short Stories, ed. Joyce Carol Oates.


Sophia Brookshire, "Rip Van Winkle." 2010,
     www.associatedcontent.com. 11 December 2010