As you have learned, the stories that make up a nation’s mythology share several characteristics.

1. They are set in the past, often in remote or exciting places and times.

2. They are filled with remarkable, strange, or exaggerated characters.

3. They feature incredible, heroic, impressive, magical, or mysterious events and their consequences.

4. They convey a positive message about a nation or its people.

How does Irving incorporate at least three of the four characteristics listed above into "Rip Van Winkle"? What is the impact of these characteristics on the reader’s experience of the story?

Rip Van Winkle covers many topics: from the political transformation of a country, to Dutch legends, the value of time and the human condition. The story is set in the days before the United States War of Independence and the protagonist is portrayed as a good man, kind and always willing to help others. His only downside is not to like domestic work, or worry about his family. The protagonist wants to escape from his wife and finds a refuge to rest and celebrates with strange creatures he falls asleep and he wakes up many years later in a new and unknown world.

Irving reflects on time like this. His character, Rip Van Winkle, has been literally forgotten by time. He had left a monarchical village to find a democratic and colonist-free village; he had left an insufferable woman and found an affectionate daughter; he had left his old friends to make new ones. Time had taken a life and given him a new one, perhaps better.