Practice Quiz Washington Irving RIP VAN Winkle KEY 12 Dec 2016 xxx PDF

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Estas son las preguntas que Russell siempre pregunta al inicio de las clases y luego las pone en el examen. Si no recuerdo mal, son 3 puntos del examen final....

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Quiz, “Rip Van Winkle”, by Washington Irving 1The first great American writer of the American republic was Washington Irving, whose Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon , Gent., which included the story “Rip Van Winkle”, was first published in 1819. The book’s success in England helped establish the United States' reputation for creative literature. Over the remainder of his career, Irving wrote many other wellknown works, including Tales of La Mancha. The most famous and widely respected literary figure in America in his day, Irving somewhat ironically contributed to America's literary independence while producing work that was distinctively European in content and style. His skilful use of personae, stylized prose, and use of European legend all demonstrate the strong influence of the Old World on his writing. Indeed, much of his work showed Irving's affection for the antiquity of Europe and for the past in general. (false, Tales of the Alhambra) 2Irving moved to England in 1815 where he began writing The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His works of fantasy seem to be a bridge between his homeland and his impressions of Europe. But where Irving's predecessors and successors looked to the supernatural to frighten their readers, Irving turned to humor: His ghost stories are less malicious in nature. Irving's stories seek to artificially deepen the history and legacy of the still-new American nation. Europe, in contrast, is the Old World, with a rich historical background that lends itself well to fantastic stories that form the backbone of gothic literature. The first of Irving's most famous stories, “Rip Van Winkle,” draws heavily from this landscape. Irving's tale of time passing someone by isn't totally original: He himself noted that he was inspired by the story of Karl Katz from the Grimm brothers. (true) 3Irving tells us in his story that Rip is a good-natured fellow, and a good neighbor. He is especially well-liked by the goodwives and the children. He is always willing to lend a neighbor a hand. His greatest shortcoming, however, is his distaste for remunerative labor. As a result, his farm and home affairs are in constant disarray. This doesn’t seem to bother him, though. He is the kind of easygoing person who takes things as they come, for which reason his wife is constantly heaping reproaches on him. Rip one day takes his gun in hand and heads into the woods with his dog Wolf. His long ramble takes him to one of the highest parts of the Catskill Mountains, in upstate New York, from where he can see in the distance, the great

Mississippi river. As evening draws near, he perceives a strange figure, dressed in the antique Dutch fashion and carrying a keg full of liquor, slowly toiling up the rocks. Rip accompanies the figure to a clearing where he joins a group of odd-looking personages dressed in antiquated garb like his partner. Rip gets rip roaring drunk with them and passes out. (false, Hudson river) 4Upon awakening, Rip finds himself in the same place where he had seen the strange figure. It is morning. He is worried about what to tell his wife when he sees her. He reaches for his gun and finds it rusted and figures the strangers have robbed his firearm and left this one. Wolf has disappeared, too. Rip decides to return to where he had been the night before to recover his rifle and dog; however, when he reaches the place he finds it totally changed. Famished, he decides to make his way home, though it grieves him to leave behind his dog and gun, and he eagerly looks forward to the impending encounter with his wife. (false, dreads the encounter) 5When he reaches the outskirts of the village, to his surprise he encounters a number of unknown individuals dressed in a strange fashion. They in turn seem equally surprised by his appearance. As he enters the village, children run at his heels and hoot at him, and the dogs bark as he passes. He walks to his house and discovers that it has gone to decay and his wife and children are gone. He also finds that the old inn has disappeared, and in its place stands a wooden building with a pole in front that has a strange flag atop it. An assemblage is gathered there but no one seems to recognize him. The people are busier than what he is accustomed to. He sees a man with handbills in his pockets delivering a political oration that bewilders Rip. (true) 6Noticing Rip’s strange appearance, a crowd gathers around him asking him questions he cannot understand. A self-important gentleman in a cocked hat demands to know what Rip is doing bearing a rifle, and if he intends to start a riot. When Rip responds that he is peace loving resident of the village and a loyal subject of the king, he is assailed by hecklers, who call him a British Tory and a spy. When the man in a cocked hat demands to know his name, Rip replies that he is so changed now that he can’t rightly say who he is anymore. But a young woman appears with her child named Rip. She says her father Rip Van Winkle disappeared twenty years ago. They figured bandits had kidnapped him. She tells him her mother is

dead. Rip announces he is her father, and an old woman in the crowd positively identifies him. The narrator concludes the story saying that that wondrous things have been known to occur in the Catskills, which is said to be haunted by strange beings. Others, it seems, have also seen personages in old Dutch dress wandering the countryside. (false, the Indians had kidnapped him ) 7The story is a sentimental critique of the independent republican American way of life. Washington Irving uses the conceit of Rip Van Winkle sleeping through the transition from the British colonial period. Rip is portrayed as a man of the old order. When he awakes, he finds himself cut off from his communal past, much in the way that the people in the Appalachian town he inhabits were isolated from the Dutch founders of New Amsterdam, which fell to the British in 1674. The problem of a loss of cultural identification, then, is shown as an American attribute. In his story, Irving is memorializing communal memory through the narration of beings who return from the past, Rip Van Winkle himself being one of them. (true) 8“Rip Van Winkle” reflects a sense of communal angst deriving from a lack of social cohesiveness, which is a characteristic of American culture in general as much then as it is now. Rapid, if uneven, economic expansion in the early years of the republic only intensified the rift. The increasing heterogeneity of the population, many feared, was turning the people into an unconnected mass, distracted by social mutability. Prosperity, brought about by economic opportunity and often unfettered competition among citizens, exacerbated the widespread restlessness of the young nation in general. This sense of malaise is reflected in Irving’s story. (true)...