Community In Rip Van Winkle, And The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

In Aldous Huxley’s novel “Brave New World” he says, “When the individual feels, the community reels”, this would suggest that focus on the community is prioritized over that of the individual, but Washington Irving saw things differently. Washington Irving was a famous author of American literature born in the late 1700’s. He was popular for his work in short stories. Popular stories of Irving's included, "The devil and Tom Walker", "Rip Van Winkle", and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". In his stories Irving put importance on both the individual and the community, but he directed his focus on the individual. He did this by portraying how the choices of an individual can affect a community, and how an individual's choices can be influenced by members of a community.
In Irving’s work, "The devil and Tom Walker", Tom Walker wanted to make a deal with the devil until his wife pressured him into making the deal. To spite his wife whom he had a toxic relationship with, Tom decided to forgo the deal. When she ventured into the woods to make the deal with the devil herself, the devil killed her. Upon finding his wife murdered, Tom then decided to go forward with the deal because his wife was no longer in his way and would no longer share his fortune. Tom
The other man competing for Katrina's heart was Brom Bones, a brute man who was tall and muscular. Ichabod was unable to tell Katrina how he really felt about her because he was afraid of Brom Bones. Brom Bones influenced Ichabod to not tell Katrina how he felt. Ichabod himself was a smart well traveled man who was seen as sophisticated by the community compared to all the other men in town. Many of the women were charmed by Ichabod because of this. Ichabod influenced women in the community into liking him by babysitting and helping them around the