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Washington Irving is perhaps one of the most important and famous writers in the history of American literature. Born in New York in 1783, he was actually named after George Washington. Although he spent a good part of his life in Europe where he became the first American short story author to attain a European audience, he also developed a significantly large American audience. Irving was a very talented writer who had great command of the English language, as well as using such tools in his writing as figurative language and symbolism. He died in 1859, but not before writing a number of various short stories. Two of his most popular works are Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. These stories are very similar in many aspects, however they do have a few noticeable differences. The plot, setting, and style of writing in both stories are comparable to each other; however, each aspect of Irving’s writing contains its own unique characteristics. First of all, the main characters in the two stories, Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane, are very similar and partake on parallel supernatural journeys. Both characters seem to be well liked in their communities especially by the women and children. Also they seem like very common people, no one of utter importance so as not to be a typical agonist hero.
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