Maria H. Keckler

English 340

The Scarlet Letter: Hawthorne’s Notion of Sin

Nathaniel Hawthorne brings to The Scarlet Letter a notion of sin and guilt that seems to stem from his experience and knowledge of Puritan theology and religious practice. In “The Custom House” Hawthorne communicates his apprehension for the persecutory impulses of his ancestors who “have mingled their earthly substance with the soil, until no small portion of it must necessarily be akin to the moral frame wherewith, for a little while, I walk the streets” (1309). It is evident that his attempt to distance himself from those figures of his past suggests that he criticizes the cold and inflexible Calvinistic theology of the Puritans, which was cruelly carried out by his ancestors. And although he sees their actions with contempt, he seem to carry psychological guilt for the “persecuting spirit” that transpired for more than one generation: “At all events, I, the present writer, as their representative, hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes, and pray that any curse incurred by them –as I have heard…may be now and henceforth removed” (1310).

Therefore, in The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne criticizes Puritan theology as rigid and inflexible. He suggests that when religion is built upon legalism and chastisement without compassion, it becomes a prison of guilt that sucks the life out of believers instead of being a means to help restore sinners. Hawthorne uses The Scarlet Letter as an allegory that shows that the Puritan’s lack of compassion is a sin that far surpasses the sins of passion.

From the beginning of The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne seems to criticize the coldness of the Puritan community as he describes “the bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats” (1331). From this first grim image of the Puritans, the reader gets a clear picture of a community that is bogged down and repressed. Furthermore, Hawthorne introduces the prison, which stands prominently amidst the Puritan community, as a metaphor for Puritan cold and inflexible theology that holds believers captive:

Before this ugly edifice…was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pigwig, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison. (1331)

This metaphor invites readers to ask: who guards this prison? —a question that Hawthorne answers as he develops the characters of Cillingworth, Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl.

Chillingworth’s unrelenting coldness represents the inflexibility of the Puritan community that guards this prison. Also, as the character that has detached his heart from his mind, Hawthorne tells us, is the biggest sinner: “We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world…That old man’s revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!” (1411). Dimmesdale’s words are a window into Hawthorne’s notion of sin, which is here explored.

Chillingworth’s first meeting with Hester, in the dark confines of the jail apartment, establishes the darkness of his persecutory spirit. This darkness is further revealed even when he tries “to mask this expression with a smile; but the latter played him false, and flickered over his visage so derisively that the spectator could see his blackness all the better for it” (1397). Chillingworth is not concerned with Dimmesdale’s sin against God; he only cares that Dimmesdale has sinned against him and is consumed with a desire to castigate him. His attitude parallels that of Puritan society who is more concerned with the shame Hester has brought to the community instead of her sin as a reflection of her spiritual state before God.

Hawthorne seems to suggest that Puritans, just like Chillingworth, are driven by an incessant desire to castigate sin without a regard for the human soul. Hawthorne suggests that this attitude ignores the core values of their Christian faith. He illustrates this irony by his allusion to the “sacred image of sinless motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world” (1336). By presenting Hester standing accused on the scaffold, both as the sinner and as the reminder of Christian holiness, Hawthorne points out the faulty practices of Puritanism that aim to imprison sinners in their sin instead of helping sinners find redemption. Therefore, Chillingworth’s condemning spirit towards Dimmesdale also becomes a symbol of the coldness of Puritan society.

With Dimmesdale, the picture of godliness for the town, Hawthorne also criticizes the paradoxes of Puritan practices. As the man that is responsible to instruct the town on the precepts of religion and the abstinence from sin, Dimmesdale is the one who is most cruelly castigated by Puritan religion: “Were I an atheist…I might have found peace, long ere now” (1499). He is harshly castigated because he is the only one who deeply holds on to his Calvinistic beliefs, yet the same precepts he embraces are what hold him captive. On one hand, he struggles to hold on to the belief, dictated by his heart, that “a zeal for God’s glory and man’s welfare” is more valuable than imposing on the congregation his “iniquity of which they cannot rid themselves” (1377). On the other hand, Chillingworth, the voice of the Calvinistic mindset, constantly reminds him of his depravity. He does not allow Dimmesdale do find peace by advocating that once stained by sin, there is not merit in penance and good works. He insists that Dimmesdale’s zeal to love God and his fellow man is overshadowed by his sin, asserting that “if they [sinners] seek to glorify God, let them not lift heavenward their unclean hands!” (1377). Here, Chillingworth characterizes the inflexibility of the Puritan community who although promote repentance, are harsh and cold, reflecting that repentance in the confines of Puritanism is inconsequential.

Yet Hawthorne expresses his own conception of sin, contrasting that of the Puritans, which he criticizes. He seems to equate the individual's state of mind as a reflection of the gravity of his sin. While Chillingworth’s persecutory spirit rapidly transforms him into a deformed fiend, and Dimmesdale’s perpetual prison of guilt eats away his mental and physical health, Hester is the one character that positively evolves in the course of the story. With this irony, Hawthorne communicates that although the community considers Hester as the outcast and the sinner, she has been able to find justification outside of the Puritan religion for her offense. Contrastred with Dimmesdale’s endless anguish, she seems to understand that the life she has lead after her sin has merit in spite of the fact that she must wear the insignia of sin to which she has been chained by Puritanism. She tries to convey this idea to a tormented Dimmesdale:

You have deeply and sorely repented. Your sin is left behind you, in the days long past. Your present life is not less holy, in very truth that it seems in people’s eyes. Is there no reality in the penitence thus sealed and witnessed by good works? And wherefore would it not bring you peace? (1409)

Dimmesdale’s strong ties with Puritan religion do not allow him to see what Hester points out. He ignores the fact that it was after his sin that he “achieved a brilliant popularity in his sacred office. He won it, indeed, in great part, by his sorrows. His intellectual gifts, his moral perceptions, his power of experiencing and communicating emotion were kept in a state of preternatural activity” (1382). Hawthorne, although not suggesting that sin is something to aspire to, communicates that Dimmesdale’s contact with sin has given him a deeper understanding and empathy for human nature, an understanding that his fellow clergy men lack within their arrogant pious purity. Yet, Dimmesdale, whose life revolves around Calvinistic theology, is not able to see beyond what he has learned and preached for so long. He has entered the prison and cannot escape.

Hester, on the other hand, has a psychological understanding of the didactic functions of sin: “I can teach my little Pearl what I have learned from this!” (1365). She refuses to accept that sin is the end of a productive life and zealously fights the Puritan mindset that wants to confine her to the prison Dimmesdale inhabits. Her battle is not longer against sin, but against the Puritan community that has expelled her into isolation and keeps reminding her that her depravity must be punished continuously, now by giving up her daughter.

Nevertheless, Hawthorne has injected an admirable resilience into Hester’s character that establishes a key message about Hawthorne’s conception on the function of sin in the life of an individual. This resilience is exemplified when Hester rebukes her ever-present accusers: “This badge hath taught me,--it daily teaches me,--it is teaching me at this moment,--lessons whereof my child may be the wiser and better” (1365). With Hester, Hawthorne conveys a definite admiration for the sinner that can choose a path of restoration and growth after her sin. This idea is further established as Hester demonstrates that she can now refuse the invitation of Mistress Hibbins into the forest to meet the “Black Man” because Pearl, the symbol of her sin, “the child [that] saved her from Satan’s snare,” has become Hester’s living reminder that her life still has value (1369). Interestingly enough, Hester is the only character that has a psychological sense that Pearl “purchased with all she had,--her mother’s only treasure!” symbolizes the value that can still be reaped after sin, an idea negated by the Puritan community (1353).

Hawthorne suggests that the Puritan community not only thrives on imprisoning Hester in the perpetual guilt of her sin, but has also extended that invitation to Pearl, the “demon offspring” who is already condemned through her mother’s deed (1359). Hawthorne seems to sneer at religious doctrine that coldly condemns a child because of the sins of her parents. He expresses this disdain when Pearl whose “so large were the attainments of her three years’ lifetime, could have borne a fair examination in the New England Primer or the first column of the Westminster Catechism,” mocks Puritan theology when affirming that “she had not been made at all, [by God] but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door” (1365-66). It is perhaps that Hawthorne, as the heir of his ancestors’ guilt, has a keen empathy that is projected onto the character of Pearl while expressing contempt towards cold religious figures. This contempt is better exemplified with Hester’s lavish garments with which she dresses and adorns Pearl as if affirming that God himself has given her something precious and beautiful, which can not entirely reflect the contempt and alienation that the community has given her.

Hawthorne’s didactic message is clear when considering Chillingworth as a symbol of Puritan inflexibility while Hester exemplifies the path of growth that can come after sin: “Hester Prynne [who] had no selfish ends, nor lived in any measure for her own profit and enjoyment, people brought all their sorrows and perplexities, and besought her counsel, as one who had herself gone through a mighty trouble" (1447). Although Puritanism negates the value in the life of an individual after his or her contact with sin, Hawthorne conveys a different sentiment.

In his story, “Ethan Brand,” Hawthorne better expresses his notion about sin. He refers to the “unpardonable sin” as “the sin of the intellect that triumphed over the sense of brotherhood with man and reverence for God and sacrificed everything to its own mighty claims! The only sin that deserves a recompense of immortal agony!”(1057). The Scarlet Letter, as an allegory, invites the reader to reflect on this idea. It is obvious that Hawthorne’s intention is not to glorify sin in the life of the individual. Nevertheless, his message seems to communicate that the path an individual chooses after coming in contact with sin indicates the true character of that person while suggesting that Puritanism who guarded against sin so zealously, inadvertently is guilty of this “unpardonable sin.”

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. The Norton Anthology of American

Literature, Fifth Edition. W.W. Nina Baym, Editor. Norton & Co. New York,

N.Y. 1998.

----- “Ethan Brand” Nathaniel Hawthorne: tales and Sketches. Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., New York, N.Y. 1982.

Heather Champeau

English 340

Escaping the Bonds of Puritan Piety and Practicality:

The Triumph of Brom Bones Over Icabod Crane

One of the first literary movements in America was that of the Puritans.

Their writing was intended to instruct on the glories of God and to

instigate a reader's reflection on his or her place in God's universe.

Nature, in Puritan writing, was a frightening entity. God created nature so

that the Puritans (and others less worthy) could scratch out a living in this

world, but nature was also where spirits, witches, and demons dwelt, waiting

to tempt and afflict the righteous. Many years later, another American

writer came on the literary scene with a much different view of the methods,

inspirations, and purposes of writing. Washington Irving was fascinated in

the realms of the imagination. Folk tales and legends were of great interest

to him. He wrote stories and sketches that took place in both the New World

and the Old and was intrigued by the differences in the scope of imagination

between the inhabitants of Europe and the Puritans of the Americas. The

Puritan's practical and orderly view of the world was not for him. "The

Author's Account of Himself" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" illustrate

Irving's belief that an American author needed to escape the ties of the

Puritan past and let imagination take over if he truly wanted to be an

artist.

From his childhood, Irving was not satisfied by the confines of his

native town. He wandered through the surrounding countryside, learning about

local stories and histories. These local stories did not provide enough

depth of history for Irving and he longed to know more of the world. He

would visit the docks "and watch the parting ships, bound to distant climes:

with what longing eyes would I gaze after their lessening sails, and waft

myself in imagination to the ends of the earth!" (The Author's Account of

Himself)

As he grew older, Irving began to feel that America could be a burden on

an author's imagination. He traveled around parts of the United States and

came to the conclusion that while the land was beautiful its beauty was not

enough to feed the fancy of a writer. An artist, literary or otherwise,

needed the inspiration of the glories of mankind in ages past more than the

simplicity of natural beauty. Irving stated his feelings about the

superiority of Europe over the United States, "I visited various parts of my

own country; and had I been merely a lover of fine scenery, I should have

felt little desire to seek elsewhere its gratification,...never need an

American look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural

scenery. But Europe held forth the charms of storied and poetical

association. To escape, in short, the commonplace realities of the present,

and lose myself among the shadowy grandeurs of the past." (The Author's

Account of Himself)

Irving subtly illustrates the need for fanciful imagination to triumph

over Puritan practicality and piety through the characters of Brom Bones and

Ichabod Crane in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". Ichabod Crane is a direct

spiritual descendent of the Puritans; he is influenced by their views of life

and nature. Crane was the schoolmaster of the small community of Sleepy

Hollow but was no man of the Enlightenment with mastery of science, reason,

and the classics. Many of the community considered him well educated "for he

had read several books quite through, and was a perfect master of Cotton

Mather's History of New England Witchcraft, in which, by the way, he most

firmly and potently believed." (952) Like the Puritans, Ichabod completely

believed in a world inhabited by specters, demons, and witches. He was sure

that these beings greatly desired to enmesh him in their tangled webs of

evil. Ichabod often read Mather's book for knowledge of the many forms of

evil and how to protect himself from them. Such knowledge revealed to Icabod

darkness and danger in the surrounding countryside. Many times the

schoolmaster stayed after school to "con over Mather's direful tales....

Then, as he wended he way, by swamp and stream and awful woodland, to the

farmhouse where he happened to be quartered, every sound of

nature...fluttered his excited imagination." (952-953) Untamed nature was as

frightening a place to Ichabod as it ever was to the Puritans and for the

same reason. The fact of it being untamed allowed for the harboring of

ungodly creatures who threatened the righteous. On his solitary walks back

to his quarters, Ichabod protected himself with religion in a way that would

have been approved by the Puritans. "His only resource on such occasions,

either to drown thought or drive away evil spirits, was to sing psalm tunes."

(953)

Nature had a positive place in Ichabod's heart as a tool that produced

items to feed his prodigious appetite. He cast a fond eye over sunlit fields

and orchards full of produce. Tamed (daytime) nature was something Icabod

approved of. Icabod was not a man of the land; he felt no personal

connection to it. When he pictured himself inheriting Katrina's family farm,

"his imagination expanded with the idea how they (the fields of the farm)

might be readily turned into cash." (955)

Abraham Van Bunt or "Brom Bones" as he was locally known was as

different from Ichabod Crane as the Romantics were from the Puritans. Bones

was a boisterous man of the Dutch farming community. He was physically

strong and an excellent horseman. "He was always ready for either a fight or

a frolic; but had more mischief than ill will in his composition, and, with

all his overbearing roughness, there was a strong dash of waggish good humor

at bottom." (956) Nature was not an unfriendly place to Brom; he rode about

the countryside without fear. He was familiar with the local tales and

superstitions. The realm of imagination present in the ghost tales of the

area was not frightening to Brom, but was rather a source of enjoyment. With

his roots deep in the Dutch community and a rough chivalry in his soul, Brom

was symbolic of the history and culture of Europe. In his reaction to the

rivalry with Ichabod over the hand of the fair Katrina,

"Brom....would....have settled their pretensions to the lady according to the

mode of those most concise and simple reasoners, the knights-errant of yore-

by single combat." (957)

When Ichabod would not openly respond to the thrown gauntlet, Brom was

forced to use his imagination to fight his rival and "Icabod became the

object of whimsical persecution by Bones and his gang of rough riders." (958)

Brom Bones played tricks worthy of the fairy folk of old Europe on Ichabod.

He taught a dog to echo Ichabod's singing of psalms with whining and howling

and he and his friends invaded the schoolhouse at night and "turned

everything topsy-turvy." (958) Ichabod responded in true Puritan fashion to

the disturbances in his workplace and blamed them on witches, believing that

they committed the acts during their meetings. Brom took note of Ichabod's

fears and decided to use them against him. An opportunity presented itself

at a party given by Katrina's father. After feasting and dancing, the guests

settled down to visit the realm of imagination and tell ghost stories.

Ichabod responded to these flights of fancy with material about witches from

Cotton Mather's book. Brom set the stage for Ichabod's defeat, by joining in

the storytelling with a vivid tale of his personal experience with a local

specter, the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow. As Ichabod left the party

he was anxiously began to search the nature around for signs of spectral

presence. The apparition at last appeared and chased Ichabod through the

countryside. The horseman finally defeated Ichabod by striking his head with

the horseman's thrown head (which by daylight looked strangely like

aâ€|pumpkin). The people of Sleepy Hollow never again saw Ichabod though some

tales filtered back to the community of him practicing law and politics in

other locations. Brom was "observed to look exceedingly knowing whenever the

story of Ichabod was related, and always burst into a heart laugh at the

mention of the pumpkin, which led some to suspect that he knew more about the

matter than he chose to tell." (968)

Brom's imaginative victory over Ichabod was a symbol of Irving's belief

that he needed to cast off the bonds of his Puritan past if he wanted to

become an artist. Ichabod symbolized the Puritan past with his fear of

witches and other of Satan's minions and his view of nature. He feared

nature when it was untamed and looked to it to satisfy his appetites when it

was tamed. Brom, who was comfortable in both tamed and untamed nature and

was at ease with the realms of imagination, symbolized a break from the

Puritan tradition. His rough chivalry even suggested a connection with the

glory days of knights in Europe. When Brom Bones triumphed over Icabod

Crane, Irving was subtly giving notice that he was going to follow his advice

from "The Author' Account of Himself": he was going to shake the dust of

America (and the Puritan past) off of his feet and reach for the historical

and artistic treasures of Europe.

April Schoneman

English 340

To Eat and Never Feel Satisfied

Contemporary United States natives are known for their consumptive attitudes,

which mainly stem from the constant American hustle and bustle for more money,

bigger houses, and faster cars. Americans are known for yearning, needing,

sometimes even demanding whatever their vast appetites desire. This American

concept of prosperity can be found rooted in a popular classic American story

written over one hundred and fifty years ago by Washington Irving. Irving’s

frightful yet funny short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” chronicles the

triumphs and trials of the bird-like character, Ichabod Crane, who possesses a

vast appetite for anything promising around him. Throughout the story, Irving

provides multiple passages to describe Ichabod’s yearnings for money, land,

tales of the marvelous, and of course, the beautiful and always voluptuous

Katrina Van Tassel. Crane could be seen as the character embodiment of

Irving’s dislike and distrust of America’s growing industrial culture.

In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving describes his discomfort with

America’s growing unsatisfied culture through the character of Ichabod Crane,

whose large appetite can never be satisfied.

One of the ways Irving questions social and economic change is through

making Ichabod stick out in the village as sort of an oddball. Irving weighs

Ichabod against the villagers of Sleepy Hollow in order to contrast anxious

hunger with happy contentedness. Even though Baltus Van Tassel displays

richness, “[he] was a perfect picture of a thriving, contented, liberal-

hearted farmer...everything was snug, happy, and well-conditioned. He was

satisfied with his wealth” (954). Perhaps because Baltus appeared so

satisfied with his wealth, Ichabod felt his life would be that much happier if

he possessed good fortune.

Irving describes not only the villagers as happy and content, but also

the Sleepy Hollow community, which remains undisturbed in quiet solitude from

the rest of the world. Manners and customs change little in Sleepy Hollow

where it seems everything stays pretty much the same, despite the overwhelming

tide of new thought spreading across the country:

They are like those little nooks of still water, which border a rapid stream,

where we may see the straw and bubble riding quietly at anchor, or slowly

revolving in their mimic harbour, undisturbed by the rushing of the passing

current. (950)

Sleepy Hollow can be seen as the ultimate untouched village; the townspeople

know each other intimately and possess a sort of naive pleasantry, which

directly contradicts Ichabod’s greedy yearnings. The satisfied nature of both

the villagers and the village provides a backdrop to blatantly observe the

overpowering appetite of Ichabod Crane.

Irving gives Ichabod one of his most important characteristics when he

describes the pedagogue as having an appetite for food similar to an anaconda

(951). Described also as a “huge feeder” (951), Ichabod marvels over a

banquet table laden with food: “The pedagogue’s mouth watered as he looked

upon this sumptuous promise of luxurious winter fare” (954). The narrator

goes on to describe Ichabod’s imagination running away with thoughts of

roasting pigs, pigeon pie, and geese swimming in their own gravy. His food

fantasies stem from his insatiable hunger for fulfillment. Through describing

Ichabod’s physical body as thin and bird-like, Irving seems to suggest that

although Ichabod loves food and eats quite a lot, he will never be completely

filled, so therefore he will never feel satisfied. Ichabod’s frame always

provides more and more room for his ravenous appetite, which shows Irving’s

negative views and fears concerning the consumptive attitude taking over

America. As the story continues, Ichabod desires food over everything else in

his life and associates achieving happiness and wealth with a sumptuous meal.

Although a coward at heart, Ichabod enjoys savoring frightening ghost

stories. Irving uses the vocabulary of consumption when he writes, “His

appetite for the marvellous, and his powers of digesting it, were equally

extraordinary...No tale was too gross or monstrous for his capacious swallow”

(952). Ichabod desires an extreme amount of gore so that his emotions can, in

turn, get their fill. Yet, as Irving describes, none of the stories scared

Ichabod enough; he always came back for more to try and satisfy his yearning

for emotional intensity. Irving even combines Ichabod’s love for ghost

stories and food when he expresses how Ichabod loved to sit with a group of

the old Dutch wives with a “row of apples roasting and sputtering along the

hearth, and listen to their marvellous tales of ghosts and goblins” (953).

Spending an evening enjoying two of his most prized passions must have been

absolute heaven for Ichabod, which is exactly what Irving wants the reader to

get from this passage. Irving shows that Ichabod’s voracious appetite will

never be filled, no matter how many apples and scary stories he hears.

Ichabod almost redeems his greedy nature when Irving describes the

love he has for Katrina Van Tassel, the only daughter of the rich landowner,

Baltus. The beautiful eighteen-year-old girl contrasts nicely with foodstuffs

when she appears to Ichabod, “plump as a partridge; ripe and melting and rosy-

cheeked as one of her father’s peaches” (954). Partially due to her “food-

like” appearance, “so tempting a morsel soon found favor in [Ichabod’s] eyes”

(954). Although this description seems harmless, Ichabod’s desire for Katrina

lies much deeper than her voluptuous appearance. Although Ichabod may have

been pleased with some of Katrina’s superficial characteristics, his yearning

nature sought her--more importantly in his eyes--for her inheritance. Similar

to his enjoyment of food combined with tales of the marvelous, Katrina also

serves two purposes: her beauty serves his lust and the inheritance serves his

greed. Irving illuminates Ichabod’s motives for craving Katrina when he

writes, “his heart yearned after the damsel who was to inherit these domains”

(955). Ichabod consciously weighs the positive benefits of a union with

Katrina by placing the need for fulfilling his multitude of appetites at the

very top of the list. Although the pedagogue’s attempts at wooing Katrina

provides light humor, Irving wants the reader to note the degree to which men

such as Ichabod Crane will go to in order to receive whatever it is they

desire.

As discussed above, Ichabod possesses an intense and greedy appetite for

receiving property; especially the rich farm land of Baltus Van Tassel. When

he simply thought about the rich abundance of the Van Tassel farm, “he rolled

his great green eyes over the fat meadow lands, the rich fields of wheat, of

rye, or buckwheat, and Indian corn, and the orchards burthened with ruddy

fruit” (955). Ichabod would seem to want all of the farm property so that he

could be surrounded with growing produce and livestock, all preparing for his

consumption. However, Irving puts a final twist on the reason Ichabod yearns

for Katrina and the land to show Ichabod’s ultimate drive in

life: “[Ichabod’s] imagination expanded with the idea, how [the meadow lands]

might be readily turned into cash, and the money invested in immense tracts of

wild land, and shingle palaces in the wilderness” (955). Even when blessed

with prosperous farm ground, a beautiful wife, and a spacious house, Ichabod

must move on to conquer further greedy adventures. Irving suggests that once

Ichabod’s appetite became filled, he would have to find bigger and better

commodities elsewhere because his ravenous nature could never stop yearning

for more.

The greed in Ichabod’s heart knows no bounds, and his appetite will never

be satisfied no matter how much food, story-telling, land, or beauty he

gains. This man of appetite will never know what it is like to eat and be

filled; instead he will live his life searching for that which cannot be

found. Through the character of Ichabod Crane, Irving describes the new breed

of Americans: men whose appetites go on and on because no boundaries exist in

America to restrain them. Americans have no limitations because they do not

subscribe to any set models, and Ichabod Crane stands as the hero for this way

of thinking.

Through “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving questions the new breed

with possible questions such as, how can life be fulfilling at all if there is

no end to the search for happiness? How do Americans know when to feel

satisfied and happy? When does someone say, enough is enough? Out of all the

characters in the book, interestingly enough, Ichabod Crane seems the most

empty of all even though he tries in every area of life to fulfill his

desires. Baltus, Katrina, and Brom Bones understand and accept their purposes

and goals in life, but Ichabod denies satisfaction and continues with the

unfulfilling chase. Irving seems not only distrustful of the Ichabod Crane

prototype, but also disgusted with his inability to appreciate the life he

has. Irving would certainly not see a problem with a person striving to gain

happiness, but he would suggest appreciating and accepting where life has put

that person before, during, and after success has struck. The “more, more,

more” mentality only leads to an empty, meaningless life because an insatiable

appetite can be endless and unfulfilling, so the task lies with the individual

to put on the brakes and enjoy the scenery life has provided.