Once More To The Lake Essay

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One of the most accepted universal truths in the world is that everyone will eventually die. This truth is often written about in literature; E.B. White incorporates this truth in his essay “Once More to the Lake” as he describes a trip that he takes to a lake with his son during summertime. White begins his essay describing his experience as a boy at a lake in Maine and describes various memories of his time there. He then goes on to tell of his most recent trip to the lake, now as a father who has grown many years, and the similarities of his present trip with those of when he was a young boy. Only to be reminded that these memories foreshadow through the passing of time that he will one day cease to live, and that die is much closer now than when he originally visited the same lake. In the essay, White …show more content…

As he returns to the lake he notices that while the lake essentially hasn’t changed at all, he has grown much older, and is now the father taking his son to the lake. This is the first hint to the fact that death is inevitable, seeing that fatherhood is another step toward one’s time on earth ceasing. Throughout the essay White struggles internally with the fact that he is getting closer to death. White realizes his approaching inevitable death as he recognizes the memories he once had are just that, memories of the past. He struggles with this concept as present experiences remind him of his boyhood. His boyhood habit of waking up early in order to head to the lake ties the present with the past as he hears Joe do the same. White describes how when he was a boy he “would dress softly so as not to wake the others, and sneak out into the sweet outdoors and start out in the canoe, keeping close along the shore in the long shadows of the pines . . . being very careful never to rub [the] paddle against the gunwale for

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