Washington Irving’s short story, Rip Van Winkle, is a study of what England thought of its American colonies before and after the American Revolution. Rip Van Winkle, symbolizes colloquial America; he is henpecked by Dame Van Winkle who represents England. Rip Van Winkle is a simple good natured husband, who obeys his spouse. His only character flaw is to attend everyone else’s farm instead of his own, symbolizing America not wanting to work for one absolute power that was England. As a result, his children are destined to inherit his laziness in the future. “His children were ragged and wild as if they belonged to no one.”
Rip Van Winkle goes hunting up the Katskill mountains with his dog to escape Dame Van Winkle and falls asleep on the hill. He finds odd Dutch dwarfs scrambling up the hill carrying a liquor keg. Rip Van Winkle assists them with carrying the kegs and the odd-looking dwarfs change to playing at ninepins. The dwarfs remind Rip Van Winkle of the old generation of Flemish dwarfs that were brought over from Holland at the time of the settlement. A drink from their keg is the award for his help and it puts Rip Van Winkle into a deep sleep.
He wakes to find he has grown a long grizzled beard and his gun has changed from his clean, well-oiled old five locks to a piece encrusted with rust. His joints are stiff when he gets up to whistle for his dog and finds it disappeared as well as other differences in his surroundings. The gully was now a mountain-stream floating down river, with the path down going back to the village.
Rip Van Winkle finds the village altered. It is larger and more populous it has more rows of houses which he does not recognize. The number of villagers represents the new generation that are dressed in Northern fashion. It was a surprise to Rip because he had known everyone personally in the village. He finds his house old with decay with the front door off its hinges representing the old colloquial America, he has left. The villagers think him a spy after Rip Van Winkle do not comprehend their question if he is a Federal or a Democrat. He answers; he is loyal to the king, whereas the people tell him there is no king. The villagers represent the new America, independent from England’s rule. Rip asks after his friends and spouse, and learns they are dead. He finds his daughter and grandchild and learns that his son has his own farm and finds he has grown to be lazy like him. He helps everyone else, with their farms instead of working on his own. Resigned to his fate, RipVan Winkle joyfully becomes the village’s teller of the “Good old days” to the children in the village. The new generation is learning from the old and shows how the more things change the more they remain the same.
