Once More To The Lake By E. B White Analysis

Tradition versus modernity is a dispute that constantly battles its way to the front lines of many people’s lives. In its most basic form, this argument is simply a question of whether change should intrude on traditionalism. Change frightens many, for it appears to infringe on comfort. However, change is not always negative, and not all matters in life change. One front in which the argument of tradition versus modernity is reflected is the way family is perceived. Just as time affects society’s idea of family, it affects people’s understandings of the world. E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web, wrote an essay called “Once More to the Lake” that was published in Harper’s Magazine in 1941 that details White’s trip with his son to a lake

As one ages and accordingly matures in thought, he or she typically grows to regard the world in reality’s harsh light, realizing that life and dreams do not always converge as planned and that life is shorter than anyone ever truly comprehends. In the case of “Stone Soup,” Barbara Kingsolver describes the transition she underwent in regard to her ideas about family. She mentions that she was a lucky child that was raised by two loving parents, a fact that influenced her idea of the perfect family, which she refers to throughout her essay as a “Family of Dolls.” In her essay, she states that as a child, she was set on being the Family of Dolls but that a “combination of bad luck and persistent hope” (para. 10) interrupted her dream and led to her dying marriage. Her divorce was an unwelcome dose of reality, yet it taught her that family is not necessarily a pristine, perfect, indestructible construction. As Kingsolver came to terms with the fact of divorce, she registered that the modern family is a beautiful combination of an assortment of puzzle pieces that appear broken to many but are in fact more whole than traditional families. While time affected Kingsolver’s understanding of family, it affected E.B. White’s realization of aging and mortality. In “Once More to the Lake,” White mentions that he used to visit a lake in Maine with his father every summer throughout his childhood to go fishing and relax. When he grew older, White decided to visit the same lake with his own son. The essay details the strange sensation White felt during the trip in which he feels as though he is experiencing the trip as both his father and his son. White never had this consciousness as a child, but he grew to possess it as he grew older. Describing this feeling in great detail, White eventually turns to the precipitous realization of his