The idea of American identity in Rip Van Winkle Adrián Leco College

Washington Irvin wrote Rip Van Winkle’s story to represent the struggles and problems that the Americans went through while they were under Britain’s control, and after it, when the American Revolution broke out. In order to capture the essence of those events, he used metaphors and comparisons that helped him in his risky mission of portraying such controversial issue. The idea of identity in this specific story is regarded as a process of transformation and as a journey towards it. The main reason for this statement is that Irvin used multiple metaphors, as I have mentioned before, and the character’s personality to make a correlation between Britain and America. This correlation clearly showed how the situation was back then when America was not free and had to obey Britain’s demands at any time and without complaining. So, in order to represent the American identity in Rip Van Winkle I am going to provide several examples of the metaphors used in this short story, for the simple reason that it is impossible to discuss it without addressing them. So, in order to represent this allegory of the American Revolution I am going to introduce a series of metaphors that clearly exemplify this statement.

Regarding Dame Van Winkle’s...