Footsteps Of Time: Eb Whites Once More To The Lake

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Recommended: Importance of human memory

Dombroski 1

Lisa Dombroski

Prof. Harrison

English 101

18 September 2000

Footsteps of Time

E.B. White's essay, Once More to the Lake demonstrate his own security in consistency from growing up on into adulthood. White begins to set the stage mid way through the first paragraph, mentioning that he and his father "returned [to the lake] summer after summer- always on August 1 for one month" followed up by the fact that "has since become a salt-water man," longing to one day return to the "holy spot." This trip back to the lake brings back a great deal of memories, as if there "[had] been no passage of time." It is on this trip that White begins to realize that his son seems to possess the same enthusiasm that he did when White was a boy. To White, all of this is a shock because now his role is now reversed from a flamboyant and energized child to an observational parent, as he remembered his father.

This vacation spot White describes through memories of his boyhood days always seemed to be so wonderful no matter what had gone wrong. White recalls the time when "[his] father rolled over in a canoe" and another time when "[they] all got ringworm" but none of this mattered in the long run, after all, this was the best place on earth. To White the mountain lake is seen as "constant and trustworthy", and on the trip back there with his own son, White wondered if "time would have marred" the appearance of the lake. Thoughts of the time spent there summer after summer continued to revisit White throughout the trip and everything from thunderstorms to the stillness of the water

Dombroski 2

was seen as a work of art, falling into place and creating an illusion as if it were known what was to follow.

White's son acted in the same manner as White did back when he was a young boy, recalling how "I was always the first up" and now, he lay still in bed while his son snuck out early in the morning headed down to the lake. Having seen this anxiety in his son, White "began to sustain the illusion that he was I." Many times during their trip White would feel confused, unable to distinguish who he was, a father with his son, or him with his own father. In a way this means a great deal to White, because now he and his son share a bond, very similar to White and his dad and can enjoy this haven together over the years.

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