The American Dream In Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle is one of the most famous pieces of literature in history. The story is about a man who managed to sleep through the entire American Revolution. What seems like a simple representation of American folklore is really a story that holds many underlying meanings. Rip Van Winkle reveals a story of a futile and selfish man who managed to escape his problems and the American dream all together. Washington Irving portrays Van Winkle as a very nice and helpful man but ultimately, I found him to be quite futile and selfish. Van Winkle failed to provide for his wife, Dame Van Winkle, and their children but played victim when his wife scolded him and continued to not provide for them. Rip Van Winkle seems to play the “nice guy” card and
I think that Rip Van Winkle managed to escape the barriers of the American dream all together. Van Winkle travels into the woods one day to escape his problems (that he created for himself) and just before night fall he encounters a shadowy figure that asks for his help. He follows the man to an area where a bunch of other grim looking men are bowling and the strange man asks Rip Van Winkle to help serve drinks from a keg to these grim looking men who are bowling. Soon into serving, Van Winkle helps himself to a glass and then another followed by another until he is so intoxicated he lays down on the ground and passes out. When he wakes up and returns the town he realizes he has been asleep for decades and missed an entire revolution. He doesn’t seem to care that there has been a huge political reform or that he has simply slept away an entire portion of his life. Now that his futility is something that can be accepted and expected with his age, he falls back into his old ways and old habits. Rip Van Winkle continues his life seemingly unfazed and unapologetic of all of the opportunities and problems he simply slept