"Sleepy Hollow"

Sleepy Hollow, written by Washington Irving, is written in the third-person narrative. The main charachter, Ichabod Crane, was a skiddish, superstisious man, who wishes to court the beautiful woman of Sleepy Hollow.

Irving sets up the progatonist to be scared by the headless horseman by talking about how he used to spend time with the Dutch housewives and listen to ghost stories before he would walk home. After being told the stories, he would commonly be scared by shrubs and the forest at night.

After reading the story, it seems like it was very wordy. Many of the paragraphs, and even in some pages could be completely taken out of the story and it would still make perfect sense. Irving uses a tremendous amount of description about everything from the Van Tassel's estate set-up, to personal characteristics and looks.

Irving describes Ichabod Crane as sort of a greedy man even though all of his positive contributions to the town, such as being a school teacher and the leader of the choir. Crane, after meeting Katrina Van Tassel can not help but think about how weathly he could be if he married her, and inhereted the families estate.

The antagonist of the story, Brom Van Brunt, was a Dutch man known for his mischeif. He had been known to ride around on his horse in the middle of the night. However, in the town he was also known for being a good man. Brunt was also attempting to court Katrina, and this begins the dismay between Crane and Brunt.

Brom dresses up as the headless horseman, who lost his head during a revolutionary war battle. As Ichabod is leaving the party he was at with Katrina, he is scared by this "headless horseman" and never to be heard from again. Brom eventurally steps in and gets the hand of Katrina.

I had never read this story before even though it is an American classic. I enjoyed this story, even though it seemed lengthy.