The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow

"The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow", by Washington Irving, is a story we all know even if we haven't read it or have seen it. It's a piece of Literature commonly known to people as the story of the headless horsemen. This story takes place in the US and can only be understood in the US based on financial, economical, historical situations. Sleepy Hollow has a powerful meaning behind it both metaphorically and realistically. Sleepy can mean that the town is quiet and there's nothing much going on. Hollow is a small wooden ravine on the Hudson River and metaphorically looking toward a community under a spell.
This story is about a man named, Ichabod Crane a school teacher, coming to this town in New York from Connecticut. He is a timid person yet loves scary stories. He finds himself in his own scary story. Everyone around him in the town scares him for different reasons. The one person not scary to him is his love Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of the rich Dutch Farmer. He is invited to her party and he goes to the party and has a good time, but in the end he finds out her affections are not the same. On his way home he runs into the "Headless Horseman" in the woods, later finding out it was actually another guest from the party scaring him. They had told stories and then pulled a prank on Ichabod, on his way home, making it seem like he encountered the Headless Horseman like in the stories they had told. After that day nobody ever saw Ichabod crane, they said he had left for a distant country.
Irving's beliefs and personality really show in this piece of literature. It also shows the time period by the fact of social classes and the era that it had been written in.

This book has been made into several scary stories and movies. Disney has made a movie and a cartoon based of the book. Also the Halloween story "Headless Horseman" came from this piece of literature. There are much more versions of the story and different cartoons and movies made. It is truly an American classic.