This 5 page report discusses a brief passage from
both of Irving’s stories in terms of their descriptive power. Then, the parallels between
the stories are addressed. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_BWsleepy.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
popular piece (along with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow") that Irving ever wrote. The reader is introduced to the story of "Rip Van Winkle" by being told that it is
actually a "Tale [that] was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman of New York" (Rip Van Winkle). This establishes that it is the re-telling
of a story which means that it can be viewed with a certain measure of skepticism in something of the friend-of-a-friend telling a story and wearing to its truth. In
Irvings "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," the reader also has the sense that the "legend" is a good story being re-told. After all, it too was found "among the papers
of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker." Both stories demonstrate Irvings ability to weave a story that pulls in numerous threads that are eventually pulled into a unified whole. At times, his
style of that of the Romanticist nature-lover and at other times, that of a schoolteacher with a taste for the puritanical. The reader can almost imagine that Diedrich Knickerbocker or
"Geoffrey Crayon" were one and the same as Ichabod Crane. But throughout both stories, Irvings descriptive skills serve as the greatest example of his talent. He sees and then conveys
meaning in the smallest of details and, again, weaves them together in ways that create the larger story. Two relatively brief passages in each of the stories illustrate his powers
of description through which he establishes the most fundamental nature of the two main characters -- Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane. Rip Van Winkle Early in the
story of "Rip Van Winkle," Irving explains what "sort" of man Rip is. He presents in such a way to make it clear that he is not necessarily condemning Rip