John Smith's Account of Jamestown Term Paper

His nagging wife is his only real misery. Everyone else seems to admire Rip for his simple nature and honest character. However his wife cannot see these qualities and this leads to disharmony at home causing Rip Van Winkle to go to a jungle, drink some strange beverage and fall asleep for two decades.

When he wakes up the world he left is no longer a domain of George III but has become part of American federation. Now Winkle becomes a sign of old world for everyone and people listen to his story with great interest. Winkle was initially disoriented because of the loss of his old world but gradually realizes the beauty of this world where no nagging wife existed. He was not concerned about the larger politics. He was only happy about deliverance from "petticoat government"; a form of government he had endured for many years before he fell asleep.The larger implications of the story seem to reside on a spiritual level. A man is not so much concerned with how the world around him moves than he is with his own small world. If all is well in his little world, nothing else seems to perturb him and if something were wrong there, then no peace in the larger world would make him happy. That is the case with Rip Van Winkle. When everyone loves him, he cannot find peace because his wife doesn't appreciate him. When his wife is dead and all is well in his small world then the entire crumbling of the empire doesn't seem to hurt him a bit. Man is thus a unique being who wants peace and calm in his immediate surroundings; the surroundings that have an impact on him directly. The larger world is a secondary and rather….....