ession with Cotton Mather served to demonstrate that Americans had formed their own witch tales, even in the short time spent in the New World. “But Ichabod reasserts the dominance of evil over American self-reliance: he quotes Mather on witches, and describes the ghosts he has seen himself,” (Hoffman, 351). Although the puritan belief in witches traveled the Atlantic with the settlers, Americans had taken this belief and formed a very unique and embarrassing American story/history shortly after their arrival. With this in mind, he went on to separate American folklore from European by using images that were purely American. Washington Irving used America’s European connection as a source of history, while highlighting differences in order to create an authentic American identity.He praised the landscape and the bounty of the nearly virgin earth, which England lacked. Brom Van Brunt chose the pumpkin, a purely American fruit, as a substitute for his head, which he threw at Ichabod Crane to drive him out of Sleepy Hollow. The pumpkin symbolizes America’s separation from Europe, because it enabled the pilgrims to remain on this continent as demonstrated through the annual Thanksgiving festival. Crane represents England in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” thereby giving credence to the pumpkin theory. He incorporated corporal punishment into his curriculum at the school where he taught. “Truth to say, he was a conscientious man, that ever bore in mind the golden maxim, “spare the rod and spoil the child.”—Ichabod Crane’s scholars certainly were not spoiled,” (Irving, 951). Although he abused his pupils, he was just kind enough to prevent losing the sustenance he received from their parents. “Indeed, it behooved him to keep on good terms with his pupils. The revenue arising from his school was small, and would have been scarcely sufficient to furnish him w...
