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Rip Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle is a kind but lazy man living in a village in the Catskill Mountains in New York in the late 18th century. He helps some children fly their kite and carries heavy kegs for some sailors up a mountain, showing his kindness. However, he is seen as lazy by his wife for avoiding his chores by climbing the mountain. After helping the sailors, Rip drinks some mysterious water and falls asleep for 20 years, waking up to find the American Revolution has occurred and his village changed dramatically.

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Kizea Juanico
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389 views

Rip Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle is a kind but lazy man living in a village in the Catskill Mountains in New York in the late 18th century. He helps some children fly their kite and carries heavy kegs for some sailors up a mountain, showing his kindness. However, he is seen as lazy by his wife for avoiding his chores by climbing the mountain. After helping the sailors, Rip drinks some mysterious water and falls asleep for 20 years, waking up to find the American Revolution has occurred and his village changed dramatically.

Uploaded by

Kizea Juanico
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Rip Van Winkle

The author, Washington Irving, wrote a fantasy entitled as Rip Van Winkle, which
took place in early October, a few years before the American Revolution in an unnamed
village in New York in the Catskill Mountains. In the story, the main character, Rip Van
Winkle, climbed up the Catskill Mountain. While he gets up and was about to leave he heard
some deep and mysterious voices calling his name, after a while, he found four sailors
followed by Hendrik Hudson, they are all wearing old-fashioned clothing. Rip helped them
by taking the kegs and setting it down. Hudson told the second sailor to pour out some
water and they also gave one to Rip. He drank the water then suddenly he was already
getting sleepy. He lied down and told them that he will just sleep for a minute or two. He
woke up only to find out that it was already twenty years later. The character, Rip Van
Winkle, was admired for his kindness and helpfulness by his local townspeople, however,
some of them judged him to be a lazy man.

One act of kindness is shown in this scene wherein Judy and Luke asked for help to
Rip, about their kite because it won’t fly. He told them that the tail was much too long then
he removed a part of the tail. “RIP: The tail is much too long, Judy. (removes a part of the
kite tail) There! It should fly now.” A kind man would do anything to help someone who
needs help just like what he did to the one asking for help. This evidence reminds me that
there are still some people who are still willing to do good deeds instead of bad.

Rip also showed his side of being helpful when he helped one of the sailors on the
Catskills Mountain, he took the kegs and sets it down even if they did not ask him to do
that. “RIP: (nervous, but ready to help) Here, let me hold that! (takes kegs and sets it down)
By thunder, that’s heavy! Why are you carrying a water keg all the way up the mountain?”
He helped those sailors with their belongings wholeheartedly even though he was nervous
and he did it without asking for anything in return, just by that act he already showed how
helpful he is to other people. It reminds me of the “Parable of the Good Samaritan”.

Evidence of him being lazy is when Dame Van Winkle, his wife, nagged him to come
home and do his chores immediately but instead of coming home, he went and climbed the
Catskills Mountain. “DAME VAN WINKLE: (impatiently) Judy, young Rip! Come home and
do your chores this minute! RIP: There’s your mother, children. You’d be best on your way—
and so had I!—before she finds something else for me to do!” Clearly, he doesn’t want to do
the work his wife is telling him to do and that is already showing an act of laziness, he
climbed up the mountain along with his dog, Wolf, to avoid the tasks that his wife wants
him to do and he succeeded this time. I can relate it to myself because I admit sometimes I
sleep just to avoid the household chores but sometimes I have no choice but to do it because
no one else will do it.

This clearly proves us that Rip Van Winkle is a kind-hearted and helpful man and
also judged as a lazy man. As I read the story, Rip Van Winkle, I realized that we can be a
nice and good person in other people’s eyes but there are still people who will only see your
negative personality and not thinking about the good in you. I also realized that we can help
other people without asking for anything in return and I told myself to stop avoiding my
chores and not to be lazy.

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