In "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Washington Irving uses idiomatic language to better reflect his rural subjects' speech patterns. Set in a small American town in the late 18th century, the idioms characters use reflect their conservative social values and belief in strict discipline.
For example, Ichabod Crane is a firm believer in the educational maxim “spare the rod and spoil the child,” a phrase that advocates corporal punishment as a means of raising well-behaved children. As a poorly-paid schoolteacher who ekes out a living by couch-surfing and doing odd jobs, Ichabod lives “by hook and by crook”—in other words, by any means necessary. These idiomatic phrases situate the story in a specific time period and place, with a specific vernacular. Irving is known for using the speech patterns of ordinary people in his works and these phrases are characteristic of his style.
