Book review

This story is written by Washington Irving and published in 1819. The story focuses on 3 main characters Ichabod Crane, Katrina Van Tassel and Brom Van Brunt. Ichabod Crane is attracted by the Katrina by her peerless appearance. After a banquet, Brom who falls in love with Katrina, plays a trick on Ichabod using the legend of the Headless Horseman. Later, Ichabod leaves the Tarry Town and make his living outside of the town. As the most specifically described character, Ichabod stands for the typical bourgeois. Working as a school master, Ichabod’s salary can’t afford him a substantial living condition. Because of that, he is always in pursuit of wealth and fortune, which just exists in his void imagination. Meanwhile, his bachelordom status stimulates his desire for those pretty sisters and the only daughter of Baltus Van Tassel. As it is described in the story, Ichabod is generally a man of some importance in the female circle of a rural neighbourhood. He is being considered a kind of idle, gentlemanlike personage. However, when it come to the final part of the story, once seeing the “Headless Horseman”, his buffoonery and scare reveal his ugly nature. In the story, Katrina Van Tassel is given much description. However, in the process that Ichabod and Brom go after Katrina, it is possible to seek her quality. She is shrewd in manipulating her pursuer. Before Ichabod step in, numerous rustic admirers beset every portal to Katrina’s heart. Among them, Brom is the only one receiving a unclear response—— Katrina did not altogether discourage his hopes. Definitely, Katrina is fortunate. Depending on her peerless appearance and substantial family wealth, she gains numerous pursuers living under the halo of nobility. On the other hand, many of her admirers just come for her family’s wealth, which shows the lamentable parts of this character. Brom Van Brunt is Ichabod’s rival in love. As a devoted, tactical one, Brom tries his best in the process pursing Katrina. He is aware of Ichabod’s weakness exactly so that he dresses up as a “Headless Horseman” expelling Ichabod out of Tarry Town. Although Brom acquire his ideal woman successfully, the measure he conducted is not accord with his former figure, which makes his victory looks in equitable. Brom may receive more respect, if he competes with Ichabod in a more fair and honest methods. Seemingly, this story just shows the process of two man pursing a pretty and rich lady. From my point of view, however, the connotation that Washington Irving wants to convey is far more that. Ichabod represents the outsiders of the Tarry Town, while Brom represents the natives in the sleepy hollow. Their competition represents the impact of the sleepy hollow and the world outside. As an outsider, he can never integrate into the sleepy hollow. Because of that, Ichabod’s failure seems destinated. Irving’s arrangement that Ichabod leaves the sleepy hollow at last, shows his preference on the peaceful life in the sleepy hollow.