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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 6709 Views


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Description:

The title is pretty ironic when you consider how little sleep you'd be getting if you had a headless horseman chasing you.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:01

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow a la Shmoop. Ichabod Crane is about two hundred years old,

00:09

but that hasn’t stopped the old coot from being a staple of pop culture.

00:13

He’s been played in the movies by Johnny Depp, and is even the subject of a 2013 time-traveling

00:18

TV show.

00:20

What is it about the Legend of Sleepy Hollow that's made such an impact on American society?

00:25

One thing that keeps it in high demand is the simple fact that people love scary stories.

00:29

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, with its terrifying headless horseman, is one of the original

00:33

scary stories to tell in the dark. People are always passing along creepy tales...

00:40

Like how that friend of your friend’s cousin’s half-brother’s aunt once put a hamster in

00:45

the microwave…

00:46

Similarly, they’ve been telling and retelling the Legend of Sleepy Hollow for two centuries.

00:53

While Irving didn’t up come up with the legend of the headless horseman, he glammed

00:56

it up, which helps the story’s longevity.

00:58

It’s surprising he didn’t come up with the idea to turn Hansel and Gretel into gun

01:02

toting action heroes. You say scary stories aren’t your thing?

01:10

People who aren’t big fans of scary stories enjoy Sleepy Hollow for a different reason…

01:14

its protagonist, Ichabod Crane.

01:16

We can all identify with Ichabod…

01:18

He’s no Hercules or Superman… he’s a skinny nerd with fast feet and quick wits

01:23

in place of rippling muscles. And, judging by how often we hide under the

01:26

covers after a scary movie, we also identify with his fear.

01:32

Even if you’re not that big into frights, or don’t give two shakes about Ichabod…

01:35

…you can’t deny the fact that, as a culture, we Americans love to fantasize about supernatural

01:41

stuff.

01:44

Things that go bump in the night can be anything from vampires and werewolves….

01:47

…To Bigfoot, El Chupacabra, or even UFOs circling overhead looking for something or

01:52

someone to… probe. Irving takes advantage of our love for the

01:57

unexplained by leaving it open to interpretation whether or not the headless horseman is actually

02:03

real.

02:04

Imagine reading this story, then hearing a snapping twig in the woods on a dark night.

02:09

You’d be liable to think that it could be the diabolical horseman, looking for a head

02:15

transplant…

02:18

So why has this story made such an everlasting impact on American storytelling?

02:22

Is it our love for scary stories?

02:24

Our soft spot for the underdog?

02:26

Or our fascination with the supernatural? Shmoop amongst yourselves

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