Sleepy Hollow Corruptness

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: The Hollow Souls of a Generation The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a tale that has been passed down for generations, seen more clearly through the eyes of each passing generation for what it truly represents. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow may seem like it is just a children’s tale, but it actually represents something much deeper. The characters surrounding Ichabod in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow are incredibly immoral. They are snobs who don’t care about anything but their own well-being. Irving uses the flaws in these characters to show the corruptness of society and to show how the athletic and crude are glorified over those who are intelligent and devoted enough to advance society.
The corruptness of the people in
Samuel Irving Bellman says that Brom rules arrogantly by force of might (2). This brings up that Brom himself wasn’t intelligent, meaning that to have an influence over the people he had to have physical might. He wasn’t witty enough to be able to manipulate people, so he used violence instead. This has become standard enough that when Ichabod shows up and is intelligent, he isn’t even able to have an influence on the people due to Brom ruling them by fear. They have been ruled by fear so long that they have forgotten what it is like to have someone intelligent in the community. They thought that he was just a book-learning, smart aleck snob due to their industrious lives as farm folk (Bellman 1-2). However, it wasn’t their fault that they were held captive to the will of Brom, for Brom felt that he needed to assert his power over the people to make sure that they knew he was in control. Brom felt that he needed to have power over people through violence, and he was willing to hurt people to get what he wanted. For instance, Brom threw a pumpkin to purposely hit Ichabod in the head while he was chasing him as the headless horseman (Irving 37). Ichabod did not want the company of the headless horseman, and Ichabod was riding as fast as he could away from him (Irving 34). Brom ignored Ichabod though, because he only cares about himself. He doesn’t care about the consequences that
They face the same choices every day, but they would rather have their fun than to treat people as they deserve to be treated. The moral lawlessness shown in this story is truly unnerving, as Irving reveals the true colors of the Dutch. The story presents humanity in its purest form, denying our narcissistic view of ourselves and showing man as he truly is, for man is