Rip’s Dependence on Society for Self-Identity Essay -- Rip Van Winkle

snaps Dependence on Society for Self-Identity riptide vanguard show off After falling asleep in the forest, a man returns to find his house abandoned, his town transformed his friends dead or missing and his own identity in serious doubt. Suddenly he recognizes his take likeness walking down the street and for a meaning he loses his identity. This is not a science fiction piece unless rather the well known tale of Rip new wave Winkle by Washington Irving. In the moment when train Winkle sees his exact likeness walking up the mountain, he lets out an anguished cry, . . .I cant split up whats my name, or who I am I am (Page 410) With that one mastery we understand new wave Winkles predicament. Without his companionship to define him Van Winkle is lost, for he only exists through the eyes of others. To understand better Van Winkles predicament we must first understand his character and how he was viewed by his community. Examining the text we find ample examples of both. Irving describes his main character as an amiable fool. As stated in the text Van Winkle is . . . one of those content mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, which invariably can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather lust on a penny than work for a pound. (Page 404) He is as well as said to be a man who, If left to himself would whistle his spirit away . . . (Page 404) Clearly Van Winkle has little concern for the matters of acquiring ahead. Yet one has to look at how he fits into his rustic community to get a clearer impression of him. Although much satire is made of Van Winkle being a henpecked husband, the story al... ...n to an gray-haired woman who finally comes forward and proclaims, Sure enough it is Rip Van Winkle -- it is himself. (Page 411) After her identification is corroborated by the elderly Peter Vanderdonk, Van Winkle is Van Winkle once more. Onc e he is identified, Van Winkles place in the community is reinstated. In fact his status steady improves to the point where he is considered, one of the patriarchs of the village, for in their eyes he is now a town historian. The story of Van Winkle shows us how dependent he was on the community, without which he could not exist. His place inwardly the society and the acknowledgment of others were crucial to how he defined himself. Works CitedIrving, Washington. Rip Van Winkle. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.