The story “Rip Van Winkle” is written by Washington Irving, and it talks about Rip Van Winkle’s sad life. Rip Van Winkle was a young man, always cheery and would do anything for anyone except for his family, calling his garden trash, and never raised his family properly. His dog Wolf was despised by his wife, but loved by Rip Van Winkle. The children loved Rip Van Winkle, because he would always teach them new things, and would always let them climb on him. One day while Rip Van Winkle went out fishing, he saw an old man. He decided to help him with his large bags, and brought it to a strange place. Strange little people saw him, and offered him a drink, then he fell asleep. When he woke up, he noticed his revolver had rusted, he didn’t mind it, then went to the village. When he returned to the village he had noticed many changes. The people, the houses, and even the children, laughed and gasped at him. He went to his house only to see it destroyed, and even the hotel next to it was gone. His loyal dog Wolf had even forgotten him, for Wolf has changed a lot. Everyone saw him and circled around him, then he said all hail the king, they discouraged him. But then his daughter came and said he was Rip Van Winkle and that he had been gone for twenty years. They all saw him, and realized she was correct, and they welcomed him. The village tells him that all his friends had died while fighting Britain, being a noble soldier or that they were a commanding officer. Rip Van Winkle told them his story, and what had happened to him.
Freedom was wanted by the people in the village; they were all currently trying to fight the king who had control over them. But Rip Van Winkle already had freedom, not from the king but from his complaining wife and many more. He did not have to take care of children rather be taken care of, for he was too old to be expected to do the things that he was expected to do when he was younger. He would also be lazy as usual and did not have to change anything about himself, rather stay the same his whole life, ultimately giving lots of freedom. Freedom for Rip Van Winkle was not the only type of freedom, there was also the colonist fight for their freedom. There are two types of freedom: passive freedom and action freedom. Passive freedom is where you do nothing like Rip Van Winkle, but active freedom is when you fight the king and have a try at beating the king. These are all the types of freedom in the story.
Metaphorically Rip Van Winkle runs away from his life, trying to find peace and be lazy for the rest of his life. Rip Van Winkle first runs away from his marriage where he leaves his complaining wife to be with other people. Rip Van Winkle also ran away from his responsibility for his children who he gave up on. At the end of the story, Rip Van Winkle had seen that everyone had run away from the king's rule, so he did too, noticing how bad the king was to them. He also noticed from his friends' sacrifice, while he was in sleep, they had tried to save them all, having an active rebellion, while he had been having a passive rebellion. Rip Van Winkle’s friends have started, death from wars, jobs in congress, and also discussing in new elections, for a new world. This is how Rip Van Winkle runs away from his life trying to find a new one, but notices different things.
After Rip Van Winkle has slept for twenty years many things change for him. His wife had died, and his children had grown up to be adults. The people have grown up, and history has changed thoroughly, like George the III has been replaced by George Washington. This is a big change for the people because they are free, and limitless. This also changes into an American spirit, where there was a revolution but they had won the revolution against Britain, and were on their own. Rip Van Winkle who had been asleep for twenty years, did not change but instead the world around him changed.
The story “Rip Van Winkle” was written by Washington Irving, and talks about Rip Van Winkle, and how he had slept for decades. Then when he woke up everything had changed for him, a lot of people he knew had died. Everyone did not notice him, because he was older and shabby. Then they noticed who he was and accepted Rip Van Winkle back into the village, where he lived with his daughter. Freedom was wanted by the villagers, and they started a rebellion for Great Britain, and they were free, this was just like Rip Van Winkle. He had freedom after his sleep from his complaining wife, and he did not have to take care of his daughter but be taken care of. Rip also runs always, he runs away from his marriage, so he does not need to deal with his family and have more fun than work.Things had changed for Rip Van Winkle too, after he slept history had changed, and everything was different for him. The story “Rip Van Winkle” is a great story to tell us many themes about life.
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