The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Ichabod Crane is, in my opinion, the protagonist of this story. Ichabod was extremely funny looking. The book describes him as “Tall but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served as shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weathercock, perched upon his spindle neck”. He was also a fragile schoolteacher who seemed to have goals and dreams and was kind to others, especially

The story takes place in a small market town on the shore of the Hudson River in New York known as Sleepy Hollow. The town is known as a very calming place, the book states that “A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and pervade the very atmosphere”. The Narrator even makes a personal comment on it saying: “If ever I should wish for a retreat, whither I might steal from the world and its distractions and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little valley.” The time period of the story is never stated clearly which in my opinion makes the town feel even more remote.

I found this novel to be a very good read, with a cool twist at the end. The authors storytelling ability was superb and helped make the book much more interesting and exciting, I especially liked the way he described things so specifically so you can really feel what he wanted you to, He did this with quotes like: “He beheld something huge, misshapen, black and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the glom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveler”. However, sometimes he used big or confusing words that would make the story a little hard to follow, such as: “Reciting for their amusement all the epitaphs on the tombstones; or sauntering with a whole bevy of them”. Lines like that made it really hard for me to understand what he was trying to say sometimes. The way he described the setting and characters however was great, he wrote extremely descriptive lines such as “… Broken down plough horse, that had outlived almost everything but its viciousness. He was gaunt and shagged, with an ewe neck and a head like a hammer; his rusty mane and tail were tangled and knotted with burrs; one eye had lost its pupil, and was glaring and spectral; but the other had the gleam of a genuine devil in it”. However one thing that disturbed me about the way he described the setting was, he never gave a specific time period in witch the story took place. Whenever he was describing a time period it seemed to be very vague such as “In a remote period of American history”. The authors style really made the story interesting. He basically let you create your own ending by not explaining entirely who the headless horseman really was, Some might think it was truly the ghost of an old Hessian trooper, others might think it is Brom Bones dressed up and out to kill the one who is trying to steal his girl. The other doesn’t even specify whether Ichabod dies or not, he states the opinions of the townsfolk in lines like: “… brought home the intelligence that Ichabod crane was

Some topics in this essay:
Sleepy Hollow, Brom Bones, Headless Horseman, Van Tassel, Ichabod Crane, Bones” Antagonist, Bones Katrina, Ichabod Brom, Washington Irving, Bones Ichabod, brom bones, ichabod crane, katrina van, katrina van tassel, van tassel, love lady, sleepy hollow, “the country wives, brooding corner”, supernatural means”, alive left, spirited supernatural, goblin…” “the country, country wives judges, wives judges matters,