Rip Van Winkle Research Paper

The tale of Rip Van Winkle has been enjoyed by children of all ages throughout the years, however time reveals the truth behind the story. Rip Van Winkle is a story written by Washington Irving under the alias of Diedrich Knickerbocker in 1819. It has kept its popularity through the years because of the morals it teaches to children. The story is a statement about the danger passiveness in society. As children this is incomprehensible, yet as adults this becomes tremendously important. Passiveness in society is dangerous no matter what events are missed, there is always a cause and effect, and it still plagues, not only the American Society, but Society as a whole, today. Many Events would have a traumatic effect on Rip if he woke up after them, one of these would be the Civil War. Before the war between the North and the South, America might have been one country, but the cultures were completely different. This causing the effects of the war on both sides to be different. Rip Van Winkle was from the north. Prior to the war the north had become primarily free for African Americans. This does not
His reaction to slavery and to the change of presidents would be much like his reaction to the King, “ I am a poor quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the King, God bless him!” (641). He would not know how much things had changed, people would think Rip to be a crazy old fool like his transformed community did. Like in the book his friends would have probably died and so would his wife, but as for his daughter working, more than likely he would tell her it is not her place. This would be a revelation showing Rip that sitting back and watching the world go by is just as good as being