Early American Writers

B.1. The writers of the early American short stories assumed their readers had certain beliefs. For instance, in The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow Washington Irving suggests that his readers believe in witches and ghosts. Throughout Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow witches and ghosts are mentioned like the people reading the story believe in them. In one passage, Irving writes; “However wide awake they may have been before they entered that sleepy region, they are sure, in a little time, to inhale the witching influence of the air, and begin to grow imaginative- to dream dreams, and see apparitions.” This passage suggests that Irving believes in witches and in the strange air of Sleepy Hollow. Because Irving speaks so openly about witchcraft,...