Rip Van Winkle

Literary Devices

Setting

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Literary Devices Setting

The Forest

The wild forest setting of “Rip Van Winkle” is crucial to the story’s progression and symbolizes the journey of listening to a good story. Set in a village on the edge of the Catskill Mountains in New York, the forest into which Rip wanders reflects the entrance of the audience into a story. When Rip encounters the strangers, he is curious and fearful, like the audience of a scary tale. Much like a reader turning the pages, Rip follows the stranger deeper into the forest where he encounters a strange group of men, whose bowling balls make a sound like thunder that bounces over the mountains. Rip stares in wonder at the scene before him and recalls a painting. This setting is the heart of the story, where the reader can revel in the scene depicted, swept along even if it’s unclear exactly what is happening.

After Rip’s strange night with the bowlers and his twenty-year nap, he awakens to find himself back where he started, but changed, like the audience of a well-told narrative. He makes his way back to the village, which has changed over the course of twenty years. It is a new world that Rip encounters, the way the world cannot help but be different when someone has read or heard a story that has changed them. Thus, the wild country setting of Rip’s story symbolizes a good story, in which anything can happen when the reader is carried away into a strange and exciting land.

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