![]() Although Rip does not realize the reality of the events taking place, it is obvious to the reader that he feels a great longing in his heart for the companionship he shared with Wolf. This outright display of hatred gives Rip his first pang of sentimentality for the old days he spent with Wolf. Irving says, "Rip called him by name but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on" (161). However, Rip is disappointed when his best friend, Wolf, scoffs at him as if he were a stranger. ![]() When he sees Wolf he is immediately excited to return to his normal life and hopeful that everything is all right. As Rip returns to the village the morning after he wakes up, he is confused because he doesn't recognize anyone walking on the street, and his own home is dilapidated and abandoned. Wolf is even present in Rip's venture through the mystical mountains that would eventually result in his twenty-year slumber. Rip finds solace in spending time with Wolf, whether they are taking leisurely walks or going hunting. Wolf is Rip's closest companion, and together they suffer through many lectures from Rip's wife, Dame Van Winkle. If left to himself, he would have whistled life away in perfect contentment but his wife. The first occasion where Rip feels a strong sense of nostalgia is when he sees his dog, Wolf, whom he believed was dead or lost after not finding him in the mountains. Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. This observation is the central idea in "Rip Van Winkle" made apparent to the reader through several specific occasions. In The Reference Guide to American Literature, Daniel Hoffman says, "Irving's pervasive theme of nostalgia for the unrecoverable past is here at once mythologized and made unforgettable" (456). The sense of sentimentality is shown in Rip's yearning for the twenty years he missed while sleeping, and also in the simple times villagers lived in before the revolt against Great Britain. This story shows the radical changes that affect a small Dutch village in the Catskill Mountains after the Revolutionary War. In "Rip Van Winkle," Washington Irving conveys the theme of a changing world with the essence of an underlying sentimentality.
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