Sleepy Hollow Essay

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The story “Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving can be read as a story of opposing forces, between I Crane and Brom Bones. Irving understand the deeper meaning of the story. Crane and Boones are meant to be more than just two men fighting over a rich woman. Both men are representations of the first American nation and it ruler Great Britain. Both characters also are representations of the Puritans. Irving wanted the readers to understand the true central meaning behind this classic is the American history is told through these characters. In the article by Daniel Hoffman “Irving's Use of American Folklore in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. The main focus of the article centers on the characters of Ichabod and Brom in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". The dynamics of the two characters represents a common conflict found in American literature and History. Irving focuses on the characters of Ichabod Crane and his rivalry with Brom Bones. Hoffman’s gives his insight on Brom and Crane personifies by describing them, as the clash of the regional characters – the Yankee vs backwoodsman ( Hoffman 425). Crane represents the Yankee, who follow the Puritan briefs, which are the people who worships God. Part of the Puritan tradition was to follow the Christian beliefs of God, where the lives of the people were planned out for them. The People could do absolutely nothing except act godly. The article shows Crane as a school teacher, as he teaches his students the Yankee traditional ways. On page 425 it states “administered justice with discrimination rather than severity; taking the burden off the backs of the weak, and laying it on those of the strong. Your mere puny stripling, that winced at the least flourish of the rod, was passed by with indulgence; but the claims of justice were satisfied, by inflicting a double portion on some little, tough, wrong-headed, broad
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