The community worked as a whole, like an one big family to accomplish various deeds. "He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghosts, witches, and Indians."(P.274) This quote shows how Rip Van Winkle interacted with the children of the village, and it tells the reader what the American children in the early 1800s enjoyed playing. .
The detail to the world around him (the wilderness and such) tells you that this was, indeed, written during the romantic period. American Romanticism characterized by two features, imagination and nature, Irving integrates both characteristics into his story. As said, this was the first written American short story, and its creativity and imagination is incomparable to the prior writings of American literature which were basically historical and religious writings. For us it may be just one of those fictional stories but for the readers at that time, it must have had a strong impact on them. Irvine effectively used the aspect of nature. Rip vanishes into the wild wilderness, "From an opening between the trees he could overlook all the lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw at a distance the lordly Hudson, far, far below him, moving on its silent but majestic course, with the reflection of a purple cloud, or sail of a lagging bark, here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last losing itself in the blue highlands." (P.276) Irving's use of nature makes the story have a mystic and adventurous quality. The remote wilderness that Rip enters creates suspense and makes the story more vivid.
The story makes several references of pre and post situations of the American Revolutionary War. The comparison that is made using Rip Van Winkle between the pre and post war situation in a typical village is crucial to understanding one of the main aims of the author.