The short story “Rip Van Winkle” is about a man named Rip who has been married a few times however still is a slave to his wife. He is very much like a child in all he does. He slacks at home on housework and he does not have a real job. All the neighborhood children love him and he spends time with them as much as possible. His best friend is his dog, Wolf, who he easily relates to.
In an attempt to escape he hikes the Catskill Mountains with his gun to hunt squirrel. On this one particular day Rip finds a nice tree and curls up for a nap. When he awakes night is quickly coming upon him and he fears the wrath of his wife, Dame Van Winkle, so he hurries home. While going down the mountain Rip hears someone calling his name. The man was an Old Dutch man who was carrying a jug of what seemed to be alcohol. The man needed help, and Rip, being the kind-hearted man that he is, was more than eager to help him.
Rip followed the man to a gathering in the woods of what appeared to be a group of older men just like the Old Dutch man. The men were playing ninepins and the Old Dutch man began sharing and drinking the liquid in the jug. Rip joins in playing ninepins with the men and continues drinking out of the jug.
Rip awakes to the sunny morning and he is leaning against the same tree he was before he met the Old Dutch man. Feeling a bit hung-over his head was spinning as he was trying to recall the events of the previous night. When Rip looks for Wolf he is nowhere to be found, and his gun appears rusted. He assumes that Wolf had run off and a hiker switched the gun while he was asleep.
As he was walking back to town he was thinking of Dame Van Winkle and how she was going to ream him out. While he was walking the path he was noticing it had changed from how it appeared the night before. As he approached the village he noticed it too was much different. When he approached his house he found a run down home that was empty inside. He passed people in town all of whom he did not recognize. He began asking about his neighbors and no one seemed to know who he was. He was even beginning to doubt his own identity.
A woman holding a child named Rip said that her father was named Rip but he went into the Catskills twenty years earlier with his gun and dog and never came back. Rip then identified himself to the people of the village who all seemed skeptical of his true identity. The oldest man in the village identifies Rip to truly be Rip and explains that there has always been something strange about the Catskills.
Rip then goes to live with his daughter. He continues to take up his old ways and sits on the porch most of the day. He did however connect with some of his old friends but he still enjoyed the company of younger people. He would sometimes tell his story to passers. Overall he lived a happy life free of Dame Van Winkle.
4 Comments so far
Leave a comment
This was a very good summary, in my opinion. This was very well written.
Comment by Du'Sharme Davis 11.04.09 @ 12:37 amLeave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" onMouseOver="" onMouseOut="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
This was a very good summary, inj my opinion. This was very well written.
Comment by Du'Sharme Davis 11.04.09 @ 12:36 am