In Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” describe the personalities of both Rip and Dame Van Winkle. Do you think a reader in Washington Irving’s lifetime would have had more sympathy for Rip or Dame Van Winkle? Which character do you have more sympathy for? Justify your answers.
About Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” Christopher Linforth explains, “you can read Brown’s journey into the forest in three distinct ways: as a dream, as a trick played by the devil, or as an actual occurrence” (14). Which of those three interpretations of the story do you prefer? What evidence supports that interpretation? What difference does it make if Brown’s journey was a dream, a trick, or real?a
In rereading Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge,” can you find specific moments of foreshadowing or other hints that his escape is not real? Also, how do you explain the middle parts of this story? What is really happening in Part III?
For D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” Janice H. Harris suggests three possible interpretations: social, familial, and psychological (1034-36). Which interpretation, or combination of interpretations, most closely reflects your own understanding of the story? What other themes or interpretations would you suggest?
