Romantisicm

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

     The story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" captures the readers attention because it is an excellently descriptive story. In the story, Irving gives a bunch of detail and descriptive words to make the story more exciting and more inviting to the reader. For example, when Ichabod Crane is describing the setting of the Van Tassel house, he says, " [The house] is in one of those green, sheltered, fertile nooks in which the Dutch farmers are so fond of nestling." In this quote, Ichabod Crane is describing the setting of the house, but before he says, "the stronghold is situated on the banks of the Hudson." Ichabod could have just said this quote instead of adding all the detail about the Dutch farmers, but adding saying that it is a green, sheltered, fertile place makes the setting sound inviting and a place that is comforting and relaxing to the Dutch farmers and to the Van Tassels. This story also captures the readers attention because of all of the mysteries it has in it. For example, the biggest mystery that this story holds is in the end, when we don't exactly know what happens to Ichabod. It is similar to a cliff hanger, but there is no other story that goes with it to tell us what happens to Ichabod, so we have to infer, or predict what happens to him. The end of the story says this about Ichabod, "The brook was searched, but the body of the schoolmaster was not to be discovered." When the headless horseman threw his head at Ichabod the night before, Ichabod fell off of Gunpowder by the brook, and he laid there while the horseman and his steed, and Gunpowder ran passed him into the night, and that's all we know about what happened to Ichabod. The mysteries of this story, and the excellent detail is what captures the readers attention and is what makes the reader want to keep reading this story.



"Swing Low Sweet Chariot"

     This song, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" is a song about enslaved men and women who wish to be set free. It is about escaping the physical conditions of slavery because when these men and women sing this song, it gives them hope that one day they will be set free. It also helps them take their mind off of the physical work and pain they go through every single day. This song comforts them when they work, so in their mind, they are thinking or singing the song while physically, they are working. In other words, it puts their minds in a different place from where they are now. This song is about religious hope and faith because it gives these enslaved people hope that one day they will be set free, and that they put all of their faith in God so that their wish of being freed will come true. All of their hope and faith goes to God, they depend of Him to survive. This song can relate to different people of today as well. This song can relate to the people or children who are being abused or beaten. This song relates to them because they also wish that one day they will get away and be set free from the person or people who are hurting them and treating them badly. These people also hope and pray to God that He will protect them and help them, these people also put all of their faith in Him, just like the enslaved people did in the past. This song is also reflective of its time period because it reflects and shows what the enslaved people wished and thought about all day when they were working. It also reflects what the time was like in the past when they were over worked and what the enslaved people would do to plan on how they would escape. The song, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" is an extremely emotional song and it raised the hopes and spirits of the enslaved people while they were working.