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Essay Instructions: Rewrite Washington Irving's tale "Rip Van Winkle" setting it in the modern day. You may change the story in any way you wish as long as you have Rip fall asleep twenty years ago and awaken today. Make your own story as historically accurate as possible. In the beginning of your story refer to things that existed twenty years ago and at the end of the story make it clear that there have been changes in the world and refer to things that exist today. (Begin by making a list of ten changes that have occured in the last twenty years.
Turn in your list of ten changes and the story.

Essay Instructions: In a well-developed essay discuss how are the elements of allegory and non-realistic fiction, in which believable details are intergrated with supernatural, fantasy or absurd elements, reveal the theme and characters in "rip van winkle" and/oor "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washing Irving and "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel hawthorne (You may do a triple comparison of all three stories)

Essay Instructions: Thesis: Although Melville declared his preference for creative geniuses over adept imitators like Irving, he could not escape Irving's influence, from which he learned that realistic details of rural life in America can be worked memorably into fiction.

Think about what the larger implications of what my thesis is saying and what it suggest about these authors, their works, and their respective periods. In other words, why do we care? What new light does this argument share on the subject of Irving or Melville?
Please include and use Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" and Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" as sources.

Essay Instructions: Using a story/or poem - "Edgar Allan Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart", please identify two major themes and discuss. Can any of these themes be found in your life? Why? Why Not? (200 WORDS)

Several of Dickinson's poems contain references to birds. Discuss how they are observed in each poem and variations in the thematic role that they play. If you like, you can choose insects instead: bees, flies, butterflies.
(2OO WORDS)

"Rip Van winkle" is an early work that casts the American woman as the cultural villain. Analyze the character of Dame Van Winkle in the story and discuss the significance Irving attributes to her death.
(200 WORDS)