Literature: the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Katrina Van Tassel

Richard Hunt Intro to American Literature

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
A. Compare and contrast the characters of Ichabod Crane and Brom Van Brunt. Think about their job/social class position. Think about the different ways that they behave in general, and also toward Katrina Van Tassel. Think about how they experience each other.

In the story the legend of sleepy hollow, the story takes place in lower region of New York in a town called Tarrytown. In the city of Tarrytown the town of Sleepy Hollow had received its name, for all the haunted spooky things that happened there, and the legendary story of the Headless horseman. There are several important characters that make up the story. Two with very important significance are Ichabod Crane and Brom Van Brunt. Ichabod Crane was a native from Connecticut who had moved to Sleepy Hollow to instruct the children of the Vicinity. He was a tall, lanky man who if looked at bared a resemblance to a scarecrow. He was a superstitious school teacher of the children in the town. He was a smart, yet easy lived man. Scholar man yet looked like he was famished and had not eaten in weeks, skinny long lanky arms and legs small head with big eyes. Brom Van Brunt on the other hand had bad intentions. He was a muscular good looking man who was very strong. He only cared about money, inheritance, and telling stories to scare people of the headless horseman. The one thing Brom Van Brunt and Ichabod Crane had in common was they both wanted to win the hand of Katrina Van Tressel. The only child of the Dutch farmer. Both men were after the same thing but behaved very differently. Ichabod was genuine, where as Brunt was not. He only wanted power and money. He wasn’t after love like crane was. He thought by telling scary stories of the headless horseman galloping through the woods hunting down people and killing them. Brunt enjoyed telling these stories to scare crane while he would be out alone in the woods. They both tried to steal the heart of Katrina. The difference between the characters is Crane had been kind and smart and his scholarly ways helped earn respect from Katrina, who he had wanted to ask him to marry her. Where as brunt only had his tough macho man ways which didn’t score much trust or liking from Katrina. There social classes were completely different. Crane was smart, kind, friendly and helpful with the children. He had gained respect from the mothers in town. Brunt didn’t he was the town rowdy. Wasn’t as mature as Crane was.