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E.B. White's "Once More to the Lake" diction, syntax, tone, point of view
Once more to the lake essay eb white
Once at a lake, an essay by E.B. White
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Discovering Mortality in Once More to the Lake
E. B. White's story "Once More to the Lake" is about a man who revisits a lake from his childhood to discover that his life has lost placidity. The man remembers his childhood as he remembers the lake; peaceful and still. Spending time at the lake as an adult has made the man realize that his life has become unsettling and restless, like the tides of the ocean. Having brought his son to this place of the past with him, the man makes inevitable comparisons between his own son and his childhood self, and between himself as an adult and the way he remembers his father from his childhood perspective. The man's experience at the lake with his son is the moment he discovers his own mortality.
The man had experienced adulthood, and therefore could never experience the lake as he did when he was a child. Except for the sound of outboard motors, the lake was pretty much the same as it had been before. "The only thing that was wrong now, really, was the sound of the place, an unfamiliar nervous sound of the outboard motors" (White 153). This "nervous" sound suggests the nervousness of adulthood; the anxieties that sweep through the minds of people who have matured. The noise created by the outboard motors reflects the noise inside the man's consciousness. Instead of the "sleepy" sound of the inboard engines used when the man was a child, there were now noisy engines, which cluttered the air around the lake. These sounds constantly reminded the man of the restlessness of his adult life. Due to constant obstacles like the sound of the outboard motors or the internal struggles that come with adulthood, the man could only return to the lake as a guest of his own mem...
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...izes his or her mortality in the same way. Some people realize their mortality when they are young, while others realize it an instant before they die. I am unsure if I will ever experience this sensation as the man in this story did. However, knowing that I will one day have to face the inevitable, makes me want to create a belief for what will happen after I reach my fate. I feel I can relate to the way the man felt because I have yet to find answers for what, if anything, will be found beyond my mortality. The unsettling feeling that I get when I seriously think about this probably compares to the feeling the man got when he realized his own mortality. Some people calm this feeling by putting their faith in God. Unfortunately, I cannot escape my suspicion that God is the invention of an animal that knows it is going to die, and it sends a chill up my spine.
Nature has a powerful way of portraying good vs. bad, which parallels to the same concept intertwined with human nature. In the story “Greasy Lake” by T. Coraghessan Boyle, the author portrays this through the use of a lake by demonstrating its significance and relationship to the characters. At one time, the Greasy Lake was something of beauty and cleanliness, but then came to be the exact opposite. Through his writing, Boyle demonstrates how the setting can be a direct reflection of the characters and the experiences they encounter.
action to prove to the rest of the world that Germany was more powerful than all. In
The story describes the protagonist who is coming of age as torn between the two worlds which he loves equally, represented by his mother and his father. He is now mature and is reflecting on his life and the difficulty of his childhood as a fisherman. Despite becoming a university professor and achieving his father’s dream, he feels lonely and regretful since, “No one waits at the base of the stairs and no boat rides restlessly in the waters of the pier” (MacLeod 261). Like his father, the narrator thinks about what his life could have been like if he had chosen another path. Now, with the wisdom and experience that comes from aging and the passing of time, he is trying to make sense of his own life and accept that he could not please everyone. The turmoil in his mind makes the narrator say, “I wished that the two things I loved so dearly did not exclude each other in a manner that was so blunt and too clear” (MacLeod 273). Once a decision is made, it is sometimes better to leave the past and focus on the present and future. The memories of the narrator’s family, the boat and the rural community in which he spent the beginning of his life made the narrator the person who he is today, but it is just a part of him, and should not consume his present.
The conventional belief is that anyone facing imminent death uses his or her final moment to think about those who mean the most in his or her life. While this is nearly impossible confirm, it seems that the overwhelming finality of death would render any subsequent...
5.) Fraser et al., Complete Genome Sequence of Treponema pallidum, the Syphilis Spirochete. Science 1998 281: 375-388.
This is Peter Inskip coming to you live from triple j, with this week’s segment in our ‘Music and Society’ series. For the next half hour we’ll be looking at the punk music scene starting in the mid-seventies.
Seventies punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of the protest song, rock music associated with political activism as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex and drug use. This was often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism an...
Death is one of the concepts that is perceived differently throughout cultures. Some see it as a punishment or loss, some take it as just another chapter of our existence – a transition to the unknown. Death is so much more than just life running out of time; it includes a great deal of pain: physical, social – leaving our loved ones behind, mental – trying to understand what fills that void when we die, emotional – frustration and regret, and spiritual – fear of not having led a fulfilling life. There is a fear of death, or the unknown that awaits afterwards not only in relation to ourselves, but also in relation to people we love, and despite the pain that fills our hearts, sometimes we need to do the right thing to ease their journey.
The German people felt that with the Nazis in control they could overcome the problems caused by the Treaty of Versailles. Nazi militarism would restore the armed forces to their greatest capability. Nazi mobilization would create employment and new economic opportunities. Nazi expansionism would claim new territories for the German people to inhabit. Nazi racism would rid German society of those elements that weakened it. Nazi ultra-nationalism would restore a sense of identity and pride in a greater German nation. After great suffering as a result of the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles, a majority of Germans felt at the time that Nazi rule would bring them the most cherished thing of all, hope.
In our lives, we go through stages of mindset and maturity that naturally coincide with aging. One thing that remains the same, though, through all of these stages, is that eventually, we die; we are completely aware of that as humans. Whether because it’s due to the painful reality that is mortality, our ever-diminishing ability to be wistful and imaginative, or merely the impending coming of the Grim Reaper, our entire lives are, ironic as it is, surrounded by and flooded with death. However, as we grow older, our perception of death changes. It goes from taboo in our young ages to something that begins to surround and eventually consume us as we grow older. Between the poems “For the Anniversary of my Death” by
After experiencing this phenomenon, the near death survivor often reports a non-fear of death. They may experience feelings that death is not the end, but a new beginning in which one lives in euphoria and reunites with loved ones for eternity. Others may also have a different outlook on the experience. Where they focus more on how precious life is and, how they will not take for granted the time they have left on this earth. For example, instead of feelings of a new beginning after life, they believe that their near death experience was an awakening for their present life.
Confrontation of death and the anxiety created by its inevitability can be considered as notable dilemma for humans (Letho, 200...
“The Swimmer,” a short fiction by John Cheever, presents a theme to the reader about the unavoidable changes of life. The story focuses on the round character by the name of Neddy Merrill who is in extreme denial about the reality of his life. He has lost his youth, wealth, and family yet only at the end of the story does he develop the most by experiencing a glimpse of realization on all that he has indeed lost. In the short story “The Swimmer,” John Cheever uses point of view, setting and symbolism to show the value of true relationships and the moments of life that are taken for granted.
T. pallidum is highly sensitive to oxygen and has a decreased ability to survive when not in human body temperature environments 1. The mode of transmission is through sexual contact or vertical transmission from the mother to the fetus. T. pallidum lacks the lipopolysaccharide which is the endotoxin normally present in gram negative bacteria1. The bacterium does produce many lipoproteins which are thought to prompt the inflammatory mediators through the recognition of toll-like receptors1. T. pallidum has a virulence factor of being highly motile due to its ability to propel itself forward by rotating on a longitudinal axis1. The spirochetes easily penetrate the skin or mucosal membranes and spread throughout the lymph nodes and then the blood circulation, affecting many parts in the body1.
Death is a topic everyone will witness countless times during his or her lifetime. Death of loved ones’, animals, or strangers are just few examples of experiences that can mold one’s impression of death. Since I am rather young, I have only truly experienced death on few occasions. One of which was the death of my grandfather. He was in a lot of pain and was bedridden for months. For him, death was almost inevitable and was an answer to the pain he was feeling. I’m not 100% definite how I personally perceive death, but because of my grandfather, I always think of death as being imperative, yet inevitable. I have a great fear for death, because I know how much pain it causes loved ones.