As one gets older, memories that were once remembered in vivid detail are often forgotten, leaving behind only sadness, and the fragments of memories. The poem “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins demonstrates just that. “Once More to the Lake”, an essay by E.B. White discusses the idea of forgetting, as well. Both pieces contain a common theme of the sadness of forgetting once cherished memories.Therefore, both pieces use diction and syntax to show the sadness of forgetting old memories. The word choice that authors use plays an important role in developing the theme of a writing piece. Both authors use sorrowful, gloomy diction to further suggest the theme of the sadness of losing old memories. In “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins, he writes “memories… decided to retire,” (l 6-7). The words …show more content…
“Retired” memories means they were once remembered but now forgotten. Similarly, in the essay, “Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White, the author wisely chooses diction that makes the piece a sad reminder of the loss of memories. “Once More to the Lake” is about a blur between past a present, as a result of the narrator forgetting his past. The narrator thinks, “there had been no years,” (White 2). The author chose “no years” to describe the sad moment when readers realize that the narrator does not remember his past memories at the lake clearly anymore. He believes that he is still living in the past, and that the memories are his reality currently. This results in him losing the memory. “Forgetfulness” uses personification to portray the same idea. Collins writes about memories “pack[ing] its bag,” (Collins 11). This is his way of describing a memory slipping from one’s mind. This type of diction portrays the loss of a memory as sad and depressing. Lastly, the blur between
In the essay “Once More to the Lake,” E.B. White, uses diction and syntax to reveal the main character’s attitude towards the lake in Maine. He has an uncertain attitude towards the lake throughout the essay because he is unsure of who he is between him and his son. On the ride there White, pondering, remembering old memories, keeps wondering if the lake is going to be the same warm place as it was when he was a kid. The lake is not just an ordinary lake to White, it’s a holy spot, a spot where he grew up every summer. “I wondered how time would have marred this unique, this holy spot-the coves and streams, the hills that the sun set behind, the camps and the paths behind the camps” (29). White’s diction and syntax
In A Place Where the Sea Remembers is filled with guilt and regret. Some of the characters experience the pain of trying to live with the disasters that has made an impact on their past. One of the characters makes a point that it is important...
Written as part of a short story collection, author T. Coraghessan Boyle’s “Greasy Lake” presents itself as a climactic account of one night in a less than savory young man’s life. Upon closer inspection “Greasy Lake” reveals a complex series of foreboding events that incorporate the innocence and ignorance males have when presented with different social scenarios and the female gender. Through his masterful use of the protagonists internal dialogue, Boyle’s artistry shows an evolving dynamic of indifference, aggression, and intimidation towards and by the women of “Greasy Lake”.
"Once More to the Lake", by E.B. White was an essay in which a father struggles to find himself. The essay is about a little boy and his father. They go to a lake where the father had been in his childhood years. The father looks back at those years and tries to relive the moments through his son's eyes. He knows he can't, and has difficulty dealing with the fact that he can't go back in time.
“Greasy Lake” by T.C. Boyles tells a story about a group of young adults looking for their chance to be proclaimed “tough guys”. The young adults get their mom’s car and decide to go out to the place called “Greasy Lake”. The lake that use to be a clean lake, was now a hangout place for young adults. The boys had some liquor, pot, and a mission to complete. They were destined to be them crazy “bad guys”. Needless to say their night ends up being a learning experience and the come home different people. Most young adults have to learn some lessons the hard way. Almost, all situations in life are learned by someone’s trial and error. The “Greasy Lake” is a story whose symbols support the main theme: the lake itself represents the boy’s character, losing the keys represent them losing their innocence, and Al’s body represented the results of being “bad guys”.
Yet throughout White’s essay you see how peaceful he keeps the tone the entire time. With the subtle approach White has on the parts of his memories he thoroughly explains to this audience. Look at the melodrama of the storm White uses. While in The Pond the tone is more spiritual and religious. For example in The Pond, Thoreau is using The Pond as a spiritual symbol. Then there is the dominant impression. In both The Ponds and Once More to the Lake they share something. The way they share their views. The views of the memories, environment around them, and the way they felt throughout the entire thing. Once More to the Lake is on the memories surround the lake White has always known of as a boy and that is his dominant
Through this short story we are taken through one of Vic Lang’s memories narrated by his wife struggling to figure out why a memory of Strawberry Alison is effecting their marriage and why she won’t give up on their relationship. Winton’s perspective of the theme memory is that even as you get older your past will follow you good, bad or ugly, you can’t always forget. E.g. “He didn’t just rattle these memories off.” (page 55) and ( I always assumed Vic’s infatuation with Strawberry Alison was all in the past, a mortifying memory.” (page 57). Memories are relevant to today’s society because it is our past, things or previous events that have happened to you in which we remembered them as good, bad, sad, angry etc. memories that you can’t forget. Winton has communicated this to his audience by sharing with us how a memory from your past if it is good or bad can still have an effect on you even as you get older. From the description of Vic’s memory being the major theme is that it just goes to show that that your past can haunt or follow you but it’s spur choice whether you chose to let it affect you in the
Each author has their own writing style they have developed over the years, which includes the uses of different tools to enhance one’s thoughts. The modes of rhetoric include a total of nine unique writing tools, which essayist tend to lean on throughout their work. The point of writing for many people is not about crafting a unique writing style, but to point an audience towards a meaningful theme of some sort. Even if two pieces of writing do not share the same concept or subject, they have the ability to share modes of rhetoric. In the essays “Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White and “Shooting An Elephant” by George Orwell, each author focuses extensively on description, comparison and contrast, and exemplification. By using these few
This idea of memories being forgotten is when there is a mention of graves being lost in “Elegy for the Native Guard”. This is further reinforced in the line “All the grave markers, all the crude headstones – water-lost.” (44) While the poem does allude to the fact that these graves were destroyed due to natural causes, that of a hurricane, it is still significant. This poem demonstrates that society’s memory is not permanent, it can and will be lost
In Nevil Shute’s On the Beach, the story of the last days of the lives of the last humans on Earth is told. Victims of Global-Thermonuclear war, which they took no part in, they are aware of the massive radiation cloud drifting south towards Australia. The main focus of the novel is not the plot, but the characters, who they become and what they do in their last days. Two such characters are John Osborne, a scientist studying the effects of the radiation, and Mary Holmes, a Navy-wife and recent mother. Through the course of the novel, though there is little interaction between the two, it becomes apparent that they are foils for each other, portraying near opposite reactions to the impending end.
In the poem, Harjo portrays the importance of recalling the past to help shape one’s identity. She uses the repetition of the word “Remember” to remind that while the past may be history, it still is a defining factor in people’s lives (l. 1). This literary technique
The title of this piece, “Remembered Morning,” establishes what the speaker describes in the stanzas that follow as memory; this fact implies many themes that accompany works concerning the past: nostalgia, regret, and romanticism, for instance. The title, therefore, provides a lens through which to view the speaker’s observations.
In “Once More to the Lake,” E.B. White expresses a sense of wonder when he revisits a place that has significant memories. Upon revisiting the lake he once knew so well, White realizes that even though things in his life have changed, namely he is now the father returning with his son, the lake still remains the same. Physically being back at the lake, White faces an internal process of comparing his memory of the lake as a child, to his experience with his son. Throughout this reflection, White efficiently uses imagery, repetition, and tone to enhance his essay.
The introduction to Adrian Forty’s “The Art of Forgetting” discusses the uncertain relationship between memory and material objects, particularly regarding societal/ collective memory. Forty builds upon three distinctive points concerning objects and memory to illustrate the doubts in the Aristotelian tradition. He suggests that objects are agents to forgetting and that there is a process to remembering. With this argument Forty establishes a means of further understanding collective memory.
The simple yet extraordinary emotion of nostalgia has been ingrained in mankind since inception. Every single individual has experienced this intense emotion at one point their life, sometimes even regularly. A feeling of sentimental longing for the past, sometimes referred to as 'looking back on the good old days' are typical of being in a state of nostalgia. Robert Frost demonstrates the natural emotion of nostalgia in his poems “Birches” and “The Road Not Taken”. Although both poems convey the feelings of wistful yearning for the days gone by, each poem addresses different kinds of nostalgia: the longing for a carefree, adventurous childhood of the past and the nostalgic reflection of life choices. Both poems make use of differing poetic structures—in addition to various poetic tools—to create the manifestation of nostalgia within their poems.