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   dbello Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

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   Rip Van Winkle is a short story about a lazy man who escapes his nagging wife by hiking to the Kaatskill mountains in 1766. Once there he falls asleep, and when he wakes twenty years later things appear different, and Rip is confused. The theme of the short story is change and the true meaning of the story is its underlying commentary of a pre-revolutionary and post revolutionary America. The relationship between Rip and his nagging wife can be paralleled to the relationship between England and the colonies. When Rip speaks to a grown woman in town she realizes she is speaking to her father. She welcomes him into her home and in a sense integrates him into the new America. The story is an allegory of the entire revolutionary experience.

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   Posted by dbello on Sunday March 1, 2009 at 8:25 PM