Free Write- AP Lit - Anastasia Kishiniovski

Free Write

      I recently picked out The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving from my bookshelf: a book that I have had for a while but never read. I did recall seeing Tim Burton's film interpretation of the piece and was curious to see if the novel was as creepy as the movie. The story is set in an American town but appears to have all of the characteristics of a European one. This is perhaps due to the fact that the tale itself has European origins. The prominent presence of superstition also leads me to believe that this story is happening  in a Medieval European town, not a post-Revolutionary War New York. Although the tale is creepy in general, I imagine it to be intended as a "dark comedy". There seems to be some mild satire where society is involved. The story involves dating "out of your class", something that I expect would be highly unlikely in a small town such as that and especially in the era this takes place. It is possible that all of Ichibad's problems were the results of his relations with the wealthy Katrina Van Tassel. I think the prevalence of the supernatural is what really classified this novel as creepy in my mind. The town of Sleepy Hollow consumes itself with ghost stories to overcome and overwhelming sense of boredom that does seem to be quite common in small towns. (like Winesburg) The most famous of them all is the headless horseman. The headless horseman was described as throwing his head at Ichibad, knocking him off his horse and leading to his disappearance. But later we realize the "head" may have just been a pumpkin and not something sinister at all. The novel leaves the supernatural to your interpretation. It does not explicitly acknowledge the supernatural occurrences in the town but does leave room for doubt. The townspeople use the supernatural to rationalize the things that occur in their town, which is quite common historically. Another theme in this novel is love. A love triangle emerges between Ichibad, Katrina, and Brom Bones. Brom is portrayed as strong as confident as Ichibad as seen as quite pathetic. Both of the suitors have less than pure intentions... They did not realize their love for Katrina until they saw the property that her family owned and how much wealth she has claimed as the "farmer's daughter". Jealousy becomes a major force in the love triangle and could have led to Brom Bones disguising himself as the headless horseman and killing Ichibad. This plot line emphasizes the power of jealousy and impure intentions and relates back to the superstition motif. If Brom Bones had really been the headless horseman, the mystery would be over and there would be no supernatural powers behind the disappearance of Ichibad. The novel, as a whole, characterizes early life in many cultures, both American and European. When something could not be explained, it was believed that supernatural forces were the cause. The combination of superstition and struggle for power in this town could attribute to the paranoia of the townspeople and to the development of the plot in general. I found this book to be engaging but creepy, but it did lead me to question the "events" of the novel and if they were in any way supernatural or just a product of imagination.