Change?
What can we learn from the elements of satire and change as exhibited in Rip Van Winkle? Can this old text exhort us to think?
posted by Greg T at Monday, November 24, 2008
posted by Greg T at Monday, November 24, 2008
25 Comments:
When i read this story,At frist it have many words put in one sententce that didnt make much sence but afater thinking about it it made me think about a lot. the story goes that he had a good life but at home his life was not so good. then he goes into the woods and sleeps for 20 years. as i thought more about it, it sounded to me like maybe his eye were close in a metaphorical scence. maybe he was there but he could see what was right in front of him. he had a wounderful town life and amazing kids. his wife may have been a bit picky but im sure he loved her a little. i think that maybe that when you have something near and dear to you but you doint know that untill thinks change and you miss what was once there.i think that the story makes us think that in time things change and people change and if we dont love them know them they came be gone another day.
Rip van Winkle is made fun of because of his laziness and lack of interest in keeping up his own household. He readily helps others in their work but for some reason can’t bring himself to do work for his family; instead he goes into the woods to shoot game, or goes fishing. The fact that Rip will only work for others satirizes his patterns of laziness. In other words, he comes off as sort of strange because he chooses only to help others rather than his own family, and the rest of the time he spends in laziness. He is willing to engage in the work that comes with fishing, but will not do farming for his family. What is also satirized is the fact that Rip was satisfied with sleeping in the woods, even though he slept a significant part of his life away. What we can learn from this is that if we just go home and sleep all the time, we will miss out on life and not be able to experience the challenges and rewards that come from a life of hard work. This text can make us think about how we spend our lives and it makes us wonder whether we are like Rip, sleeping our lives away, or if we are living our lives to the fullest.
Change is inevitable. After Rip awakens from his long sleep and returns to the village, he does not recognize the people he encounters. Everything is different, it seems as if nothing is as it was. His own house is in a shambles now with no one living in it, his wife and Vedder are dead, others left the village and never came back, and there has even been a revolutionary war in which America gained its independence from England. This change is good for Rip because his heckling wife is dead, and now he has nobody to nag him about the activities he partakes in. He can now readily help others with their work without being criticized by his wife for not helping his own family. What I’ve learned from this piece of literature is that change can be good. While Rip slept 20 years of his life away and missed out on numerous opportunities, he was a happier man when he awoken. And truly that is the most important aspect of life, being happy and content with who you are and what you are doing.
from the stroy we can learn sevrail things. First is that everone has there own positives and negitives. Although Rips wife does not find him funny in the slightest, and thinks that he is a lazy bore, but others have really benifetied from him. We can all learn something great from this story, that is to be yourself and not to give up on who you are and to never run away. Another is not to fear change, Because allthough change may look bad at first, as Rip thought it did when he reterned, it can be a good thing, such as Rip finds out, when Amrica wins the war.
Rip Van Winkle might seem like a simple satire when one first takes a quick glance at it, yet once a true analysis occurs, it becomes very evident that there is a deeper meaning within the text. The fact that he slept his entire life away showed how society sometimes takes things for granted and doesn't realize how good they really have things until they are gone. Rip may have "hated" his nagging wife, yet once she was removed from his life as well as all of his old acquaintances, he realized how empty and meaningless his life had become. If someone doesn't appreciate the gifts that have been given to them in their lives, then the only way to learn a lesson is to have the objects taken away.
I think that change can be a good thing or a bad thing. In Rip Van Winkle, Rip experiences a lot of change after being asleep for like 20 years. He took for granted many things in his life and only after he woke up to find everyone gone, did he realize how important they had been to him. No one knew who he was, including himself. This story makes you think twice before thinking that your life would be better without someone in it just because they might annoy you now and then. It challenges the reader to look at their lives and the people that are important to them and have to think about what their lives would be without them.
when we started reading this book in class i was so confused. the words all seemed to blur together and nothing made any sense but once i sat down and read it again i began to see the words tell its story and the true meaning of what the author was really trying to say. it really got me thinking. the man had a good life but i think the author speaks metaphorically when it says he went into the forest and slept for twenty years. i believe it has more to it then that. i think it can relate to modern society. we close our minds to everything around us and only see what we want to see but we truly lose sight of things and they spin out of control.i think Rip Van Winkle only wanting to help others and not in his own household displays the fact that he wants to help and give back but he isn't happy at home and helping at home isn't what makes him happy. i agree with brian...the best thing in life is to make others happy if thats what makes you happy in return.but i think sometimes if we lose sight of what really makes us happy thats when things start to spin out of control. we get too caught up in what others want.
When i first read Rip Van Winkle i thought he was typical, but a good guy. I think after waking up after 20 years helped him realize he needs to be more involved with his family. I think this can help everybody realize they need to be close to their family because something can happen where you might not see them for a long time or ever again. You think about how thankful you are when your close to losing someone. This story demonstrates this point perfectly and makes you think about how thankful you should be about things. I still dont get why he didnt care that much when he found out his wife was dead? Maybe he was sad or a little depressed, but i didnt see it.
After reading the selection, I think people need to take away the idea of drastic change, and change over time. If people aren't aware of change, it takes them by surprise and shocks them. When Van Winkle slept for 20 years, he came back and thought that the changes had taken place over night, and he began to panic. To his surprise it was a 20 year time lapse, but it still freaked him out nonetheless.
I think what we lear from Rip is that change is enevitable and we have to accept it in our own way. It teaches us to think ahead in a way because we don't know what is going to happen in the future. With change happening everyday we need to think about how we should deal with it in a way that we like and know. Rip teaches us that there can always be a good mix of the new and old. The acceptance of change is key and with the way the world is changing today we must be ready for anything.
We can learn that change cannot be stopped and will always continue. Today we continue to improve technologies and medications we could not have dreamed about 20 years ago. The economic status of the world is in a completely different state then it was back then. Imagine what it would be like to live 20 years ago. completely different. It is important that we use change to our advantage. It is the same for Mr. Van Winkle. He does not know what has happened in his life and begins to realize that when he was away monumental things changed even though it might not seem so to the common person. You must learn from your mistakes and change them so you can benifit from them which is what Rip decides to do.
I think that what the author is trying to say is that when we only pay attention to the things that we want to because we dont want to really see whats going on. in the story Rip falls asleep for twenty years but i think that the message there is people today dont pay attention to the things that matter, even though they are important and then we end up losing sight of things.
I think that what the author is trying to say is that when we only pay attention to the things that we want to because we dont want to really see whats going on. in the story Rip falls asleep for twenty years but i think that the message there is people today dont pay attention to the things that matter, even though they are important and then we end up losing sight of things.
It makes us think that we need to pay attention more because the simple things can just slip by. Rip fell asleep for 20 years and everything completely changed. Things change even after a day, I can't imagine what it would be like to wake up and not know anything about the current time. It just makes you realize how much you need to pay attention to what you have and who you have in your life.
This story shows us that change happens all around us whether we are aware of it or not. It also shows us that things change whether we are aware of it or not. Some of the changes that occurred while Rip was gone were very hard to get used to, and could maybe be seen as negative changes from Rip's point of view, but others made his life much better and easier, so these changes were looked at positively by him. So another thing that this story makes us think about is the fact that change is going to happen despite of our efforts to avoid it, but change isn't always bad, in fact change can be very positive for us, so we should welcome change, and make the best of the changes that come our way.
The text Rip van Winkle included alot of change throughout the story. He sleeps for 20 years and the world around the forest changes and some of the forest does too. I think that the change that happened was a good thing though Rip may not have thought it was good. It makes me think about events today where some people don't feel that change is good. Such as some old people just don't want to get into technology which the world is based around today. Also most changes happen because they need to and most of them are for the better. With the story about rip van winkle some of the changes that happened such as american revalution and his children growing up. So most changes are for the better and shouldn't ever be directly shot down but just given into to try for better or worse.
I think that the author of "Rip Van Winkle" was trying to tell the audience that things slip past us if we aren't paying attention. If we are taking our time for granted, important things could pass us by. We could miss out on important opportunities, people, and experiences. We need to stop and take a look around us more often because if we don't, we could end up missing things like Rip Van Winkle.
I believe that the elements of change exhibited in Rip Van Winkle is satirizing the phrase 'ignorance is bliss.' If we just run away from all of our problems then they will only grow and grow until they are just too much for one person to handle and then someone will have a breakdown. But when we just sleep over our problems, it makes it all better for a small period of time. For Rip Van Winkle, he had 20 years of so called 'bliss' when he slept, but it all caught up to him when he wakes up and realizes that he has to deal with all of his problems. Sleeping for 20 years also symbolizes the alienation of yourself from the outside world. If you just isolate yourself from the outside world, nobody will be willing to help you.
After reading Rip Van Winkle, I could see a definate change in Rip's life; being popular and adored (other than from his wife) to a strange man that is confused about the changes that happened while gone for so many years. In the story, so many physical things changed but the longlasting traditions continued. For example, the people he encounters, fashions and the look of the village are all altered. But, beyond the village is the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains that never changed. Also, the fact that the thunder rumbles and his crew plays ninepins like they used to, shows that contiuency. Even though change came to the village, it still continued to thrive; new generations brought change, but traditions lingered on. It made me think about our societies well being and future. Is our forfathers passing down past tradions for our generation to continue? How will this affect our future?
In Rip Van Winkle the "typical" wife is shown as a naggy and irritating woman when Rip represents the steriotypical male who cares not for his own afairs but just wants to do what makes him happy. Each of these characters show valuable lessons. For example, Rip always ignors his tasks at home and in return his farm fails, his wife nags, and his kids look like wild animals. Rip's wife on the other hand nags sooo much that it actually drives Rip to just run away. This causes us to wonder if Rips wife maybe used another method or if she had tried to soften up everynow and that that Rip would have changed. On the other hand when you observe Rip you wonder that maybe him running away, asa bad as that sounds, was the best option for him. Or what his life would have been like if he never fell asleep. Would things have escalated so much that his whole life could have been a disaster if he stayed? Or would his wife ever realize that all the nagging and yelling only pushes her husband away from her?
I think that this story isa good demonstation of how without one person the world is still able to function normally. "Rip Van Winkle" shows us that we sometimes need to take a step back and look at what really matters. Also this shows us not to over-value anyone or anything becuase we will get over the loss of a loved one or a loved thing.
When Rip Van Winkle wakes up after 20 years everything is different. i think the change shocked him in to rethinking how he was living his life. Things change everyday but its not so noticeable because it doesn't all happen at once, though it can happen all at once. Change can be for the best or the worst. i think the need to live each day to the fullest is essential because if you don't everything can all of a sudden change and you wont feel complete. rip van winkle was lazy and didn't spend a lot of time with his family and i dont think he was completely happy with how he thought his life was when really he had a great life, in a nice town and a wife that nagged but loved him all the same.
In the story "Rip Van Winkle" a man, Rip, is a very friendly and genuine guy but when he is at home that is a completely different story. He doesn't do anything around his house and his wife won't stop nagging him to put a little effort into keeping his family afloat. Then one day he leaves and doesn't come back because he was sleeping for 20 years. And when he finally makes it home everything has changed, his dog no longer recognizes him and his family and friends are all gone. This tells me that no matter what your life is like you should never take it for granted and you should always respect the people who are close to you because if you don't the time that you spend with will feel so little when they have decided to leave your life permanently.
Something that we can learn from the elements of satire and change as exhibtited in Rip Van Winkle is that change can be a good thing. It also teaches us to enjoy our lives and not sit back and live life with regrets. Rip Van Winkle is a story about a free hearted man who is often called lazy because of his lack in house chores, however he trys to live life to the fullest. We can learn to not take things so seriously through satire.
I think we can learn A lot from Rip Van Winkle. I think one of the main themes the author intends to portray is if you do not take life seriously it will pass you by. Rip was always light hearted and never took anything seriously. The gnomes that put him to sleep for 20 years were to show how life could pass you by. It shows how all of a sudden people could realize that the past 20 years have passed and they had grown old and had nothing to show for the last 20 years. I think it also shows that you do not need to be successful to be happy or liked. Eventhough Rip is considered to be a dead beat, the people of the town still like him and he seems very cheerful.
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