Washington Irving was one of America's earliest satirists and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", a short story set in the colonial period, observes the insularity of the early Dutch settlers of the Hudson River valley and the lengths to which they would go to ensure the purity of their community. Brom Bones is a symbolic character meant to represent the bounty of America, a young country rich in resources with strong ties to its European heritage.
It is widely expected that Brom Bones and Katrina Van Tassel, scions of wealthy Dutch-American families, will eventually marry and merge the extensive landholdings of their fathers. Because they are young, Katrina and Brom play games with each other before they consent to settle down together to please their parents and the community at large. When outsider Ichabod Crane comes to town and becomes the schoolteacher, Katrina's beauty and wealth capture his attention. He courts her, and she welcomes the attention because it appeals to her vanity and makes Brom jealous.
Brom is a flat and stereotypical young male character: hyper-masculine, brawny, reckless, and confident. With the home field advantage, he makes short work of the effete and superstitious Ichabod, running the interloper out of town with the Headless Horseman ruse. In the end, Brom and Katrina marry and the insularity of their Dutch-American village is preserved. Brom's actions also suggest that "simple country folk" should not be underestimated; his native cleverness enables him to prevail over the sophisticated intellectual who dares to disrupt Sleepy Hollow's way of life.
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