How do Ichabod Cranes and Brom Bones individual treatments of the legend of the Headless Horseman reveal their differing perspectives in the...

In s ,
the different perspectives of Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones represent conflicting cultural
forces. A city-born schoolmaster, Cranes perspective is that of an outsider intruding on
traditional village life. A physically frail man, he hungers for wealth but lacks the means to
attain it. He seeks to marry Katrina Van Tassel solely for the purpose of obtaining her familys
land and selling it for a profit.

Irving also notes Cranes appetite for the
marvellous, and his powers of digesting it. In other words, he is quick to treat local legends
and superstitions as fact and prone to letting his imagination run wild.

In
contrast, Brom Bones offers an insiders perspective. Descended from a long line of Dutch
farmers, Bones is as physically robust as he is popular. He is Cranes chief competitor for
Katrinas hand because he has genuine feelings for her. For Bones, the legend of the Headless
Horseman is simply an entertaining tale that inspires no real fear. When he observes Crane
ogling Katrina, however, he treats the tale as an opportunity to prey on Cranes insecurities and
overactive imagination.

Irving writes that Bones made light of the
Galloping Hessian as an arrant jockey [and] offered to race with him for a bowl of punch. Famous
for his riding prowess, Bones treats an encounter with the Headless as a friendly competition,
but Crane, who is a poor rider, finds the prospect of a race with a supernatural creature truly
terrifying. When Bones dresses as the Headless Horseman and pursues Crane later that night, the
schoolteacher is so frightened that he flees Sleepy Hollow and never returns.