6 rip van winkle

1. 6. Rip Van Winkle
Historical Background : Irving’s story takes place during an exciting period in
American history, when the nation was first born, a child of the British Empire. Rip tells the
village people that he is “a loyal subject of the King,” hoping to convince them that he is
friendly. But the villagers are insulted and want to put him in jail. Why? What has changed
since Rip fell asleep? Is it his fault he still thinks the British king is his rightful rule? Why
was the name of the inn changed? What was the strange flag that Rip saw in the village
square?
The reason that the villagers insulted to Rip because at that time after Rip had woken
up from the long sleep the nation changed from be ruled by King of British Empire to be
ruled by the president of U.S.A. Americans hated British people as they had a war with them
to be freedom from the motherland, England. Rip was not fault to think that he was the loyal
subject of the King of British Empire as he still not realized that everything had been changed
since he had slept for a long time, but his thought was not in the good place that everyone had
been changed to be American.
The strange flag that rip saw in the village was the flag of United States of America
that showed the stars and stripes which was different from the flag used during being ruled by
British Empire