Rip Van Winkle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Rip Van Winkle - Essay Example Rip Van Winkle: the Passive Protagonist. On the surface, Washington Irving’s A Posthumous Writing of Diedrich Knickerbocker  appears to be a fairy tale which requires the reader to willingly suspend his disbelief. However, further reading gives it a deeper meaning. Rip Van Winkle, the protagonist of the story, has an out-of-the-ordinary experience in the Catskill Mountain and falls sleeps for twenty years. He returns to his village to find the old order of things changed by the American Revolution. When we consider that the story has been plotted so that the protagonist is absent during such a momentous period of American history, it is evident that the author is attempting to convey a particular message to the reader. I believe that Washington Irving’s purpose in writing Rip Van Winkle is to assert that the old, even when it is not a catalyst of change, can serve as a cherished and valuable agent of continuity with the new. Rip Van Winkle is a passive protagonist, bu t retains his relevance until the end of the narrative. Rip Van Winkle is â€Å"a simple, good-natured fellow† who is â€Å"pliant and malleable† (Washington, 2011, p.32), in his dealings with his fellow-men.