Washington Irving: Rip Van Winkle

 Price of Change: Reflection in Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle"

Indeed, one could find within the geographical terrains of Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" an eerie reflection of change, identity, and passage of time regarding the early America. It is a tale of an honest man known as Rip lost in the woods for succumbing to nagging by his wife and other pressures of society for he was no indolent man, after all, with the Catskill Mountains spread out panoramic fashion. The Rip who slept for twenty years comes back to an altogether different world born out from under the shadow of British rule, drowning himself in a new nation. It's, indeed an unbelievable story-a critique on change for an individual, yet again serving as an analogy for an identity change on part of Americans post-Revolution.

With such poignant juxtaposition, Irving pitches the idyllic past of Rip against the brutal facts of his altered life even as, in his life once marked by peace, his return portrays all the disarray that accompanies societal advancement. Friends became estranged, politics changed, and the small, quaint village he knew has been transformed during his absence. It reflects the kind of change seen in America at large with new independence and the awareness of identity that the Revolution brought about. Often such change came about only at the price of losing a previous easier past. The confusion of Rip, Irving helps readers take their time mulling over that bitter-sweet feeling of change: to what extent fixation of time revolves around progress in losing the bygone.

Another very striking theme of "Rip Van Winkle" is personal desire vs. social necessity. He belonged to the species of dreamers since he had a liking toward the company of nature and simple-minded fellow creatures in the beasts than society asking for something hard and within the lines. Therefore, his long slumber can be called an escape from the pressure of reality and also confirms the impression of a struggle between personal liberty and social demands. Thus, it encapsulates the theme that social conventionalities are heavy weights, and for Rip, those conventionalities created the feeling within him that he is an isolate and confused and finally antipathetic to the progressive society.

Briefly, "Rip Van Winkle" is tapestry full of themes of change, identity, and complexity for the evolution of society. This is Irving's tale that prods the reader into facing the invincible nature of time, how powerful time is, to transform individuals and groups. In assembling his perceptions of what he now knows-his obsoleteness-in some way puts us in a position to view our role in the progressive world and to what extent, if at all, this role molds our perceptions of ourselves. Therefore, it does make this sojourn of Rip all true because the times, altering the face, as is often said, are throwing us very deep into those darker holes of introspection which ask for reconciling with that which occurred but is now a thing.