In "Rip Van Winkle," Irving is making a case for the new energy and engagement that the American Revolution and the birth of the United States caused to arise in people. Happy-go-lucky Rip, who likes to hang out at the inn under the portrait of George III, falls asleep while New York is a colony under British rule, subject to laws over which the colonists have no say. When Rip wakes up twenty years later,...
In "Rip Van Winkle," Irving is making a case for the new energy and engagement that the American Revolution and the birth of the United States caused to arise in people. Happy-go-lucky Rip, who likes to hang out at the inn under the portrait of George III, falls asleep while New York is a colony under British rule, subject to laws over which the colonists have no say. When Rip wakes up twenty years later, the United States is its own country and is filled with a new, vibrant energy.
Rip represents the old, lackadaisical, "sleeping" colonials who accepted King George's rule and lived passively. These are Irving's targets. He much prefers the active, voting, bustling citizens of the new republic, who are energized to vote and be true participants in their own governance.
As the story's narrator puts it, describing the village after Rip's long sleep:
The very character of the people seemed changed. There was a busy, bustling tone about it, instead of the accustomed drowsy tranquility. He [Rip] looked in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and long pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco smoke instead of idle speeches; or Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an ancient newspaper. In place of these, a lean fellow, with his pockets full of handbills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of citizens—elections—members of congress—Bunker’s Hill—heroes of seventy-six—and other words, which were a perfect jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle.
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