occurring in American society. Rip Van Winkle seemed to have gotten to take a break from the harsh changes that most Americans were feeling at the time. They went through the strife of a rapidly changing country, while Rip Van Winkle got to take a long, relaxing nap. In an article I found, it stated that “ Irving’s sociopolitical opinions do not become readily apparent until Rip wakes up from his sleep. Rip is confused and asks questions seeking his identity in the same way that the young country was seeking its identity. Rip seeks the truth much as the new country was.” ( www.cwrl.utexas.edu ) This is were I saw the allegory play into the short story. When Rip returned to the town, the sign that hung by the tavern had been changed. When he left the small town, the sign had a man with a crown and a scepter in his hand. After his return from the long nap, the sign was changed. The man in the earlier sign now had a large sword and cap instead of a crown.Source: www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/rvw/tv.htmlHenry James, The Turn of the ScrewThe first thing I researched was why Henry James wrote his book in installments. According to the web page, www.gradesaver.com, James had the book published at Collier and they decided to divide the story into five parts and publish them in twelve installments. Collier was a magazine and to boost his circulation and revenue, he published The Turn of the Screw. Doing it in installments kept people buying his magazine. Collier and James did, however, agree to publish the story as a whole when Collier was done publishing James’ work.James wrote this piece at a time in history when people were beginning to lose faith in their traditional religion. People were looking everywhere for spiritual understanding and James found it perfect to write this and have people find spirituality in the world beyond. In the same article as mentioned above, the wrote how “peo...
