“Once more to the Lake” is a short essay written by E.B. White in first-person. White tries to form a relationship between his past and present experiences. It begins with a father and son who travel to a place White’s family visited every August, a great lake for camping and fishing. E.B. White is full of excitement as the lake symbolizes his childhood and the best memories in his life. Going fishing again on this lake, he wants to return his childhood or to return his childhood memories. He later realizes that he is not able to return to his childhood and that he’s getting older and he is not capable of remember all the memories brought from the lake. White says, “I wondered how time would have married this unique, this holy spot—the coves …show more content…
Although, we know everything changes as time goes on. During his childhood years the lake was quiet, with little nature and a lack of main roads. “The lake had never been what you would call a wild lake. There were cottages sprinkled around the shores, and it was in farming although the shores of the lake were quite heavily wooded.” (pg. 1-2) This shows that the way he remembers the lake it is similar to the way he sees the lake now and he is accepting that he is no longer a teen and no longer the son, but now the father with …show more content…
The way he feels is common for people who have visited places that are connected to great memories. When White mentions that even the storms have not changed, “It was the revival of an old melodrama that I had seen long ago with childish awe.” To him when the rain the thunder and lightning disappear the sky becomes more clear and his vision of the lake begins to change. He then realizes that time is moving forward by the annoying sound of the boat motors he hasn’t heard before. However, some things don’t change but only the position it plays in the generation. The past is something that we cannot remove. All senses smell, sight, hearing, taste, touch, can mentally bring back a thousand memories. White says, “Outside, the road was tarred and cars stood in front of the store. Instead, all was just as it had always been.” He tries to explain that outside, we can see everything has changed, but on the inside everything that we have experienced before stays the
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
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.
Sudden and Ironic events that happen to the narrator in T.C. Boyle’s short story “Greasy Lake” are the same type of events that in an instant will change a person forever. The ironic circumstances that the narrator in “Greasy Lake” finds himself in are the same circumstances that young people find themselves in when fighting war.
In 'Greasy Lake,' the dualism of the characters' nature is ever-present. They are self-proclaimed bad guys who 'cultivated decadence like a taste' (79). As the story progresses, however, it is revealed that just the opposite is true. While they are essentially caricatures of themselves, it is this dynamic that drives the story. Their tough exterior is just that, an exterior veneer that permeates their actions as 'dangerous characters.' The narrator is somewhat detached from the younger self of his story. It is an ironic detachment'a parody of his moral ignorance. He recalls the 'bad? antics of his youth: driving their 'parents' whining station wagons,' but doing so as bad as humanly possible, of course. He mocks both himself and his friends in his retrospection of their experience in Greasy Lake, the consummate locale of 'bad.' To the boys, the lake serves as a kind of haven for bad characters such as themselves. Truly, however, the lake is an extension of the dynamic between who the boys are and who they parade around as. It is here where the previous and false understanding about their world is shattered, and they are thrust into a moralistic reformation. Ultimately, the dichotomous nature of the protagonist is resolved by his visit to the lake, and perhaps, the lake itself.
Throughout the essay, White reminisces his past experience at the lake where he recalls what it felt like to think about girls and how quiet the steamboat ran on the still water while boys would play mandolins and girls would sing (White). These memories allow White to compare his past with the way things are in the present. He realizes that things are slightly more advanced, such as the loudness of the new motorboats. While White notices the slight changes in the environment, he encounters a dual existence where it
“Goose Pond”, written by Thomas Williams seemingly is a novel about the tranquil rural life but intricately portrays the mind and state of a fifty-eight year old man who has just lost his wife. Having natural and peaceful aspects, the story itself is not about the simple rural life in the woods. It depicts how Robert Hurley began to deal and come to terms with his sudden loneliness and realization of his eventual death. Including both the realistic cruelty of life alone and the expectation readers would have from a novel—such like a Norman Rockwell painting; he keeps the readers indulged in the mind and heart of the lonesome Robert Hurley.
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.
---. “Take Me to the Water.” 1972. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998: 353-403.
Within the essay “Once More to the Lake”, E.B. notes that “I bought myself a couple of bass hooks… returned to the lake… to revisit old haunts… When the others went swimming my son said he was going in… As he buckled the swollen belt, suddenly my groin left the chill of death (White 464). The essay “Once More to the Lake” brings a significant amount of attention towards the author’s attempt to secure personal satisfaction. It becomes quite obvious in the first few paragraphs, that the main character is on this vacation with his son, to recreate the careless feeling he use to have while vacationing with his dad as a child. Even though E.B. does not come out clearly and say it, the author is chasing some type of nostalgic feeling he clearly needs to feel better about life. On each page, White uses comparison and contrast to explain to the reader how the trip resembles the one he use to experience with his dad. By the end of the reading, the father begins to realize his vacation trip with his son will never be the same as the one he has dreamt about. He is no longer a child who can only notice the positive components of life. At this point, the father is an adult who will never have the innocence he once clung too. It takes some reflection for him to finally realize his place as a father in the situation. Comparison and contrast displays the idea that even though everything may look the same, it does not mean it feels the same. This mode rhetoric reflects back to the theme at the end of essay, as it concludes the author’s failed attempt to find some satisfaction from the
White, is experiencing a mental breakdown. He consistently confuses his own memories with the present time. It is almost as if he believes that nothing has changed since the last time he came to the lake. Change is a significant factor in the essay, but generally on time and maturing because change means a difference between the now and then. However in my perspective, things do not have to change to show progression. The best things in life that I have come in contact with are things that are familiar to me. Relationships that are with people that I love who I have not seen in a while are great because when we meet again to socialize, it is as if nothing has changed and we are back to being as close as ever. I love relaxing with my friends one last time before we have to go back to college because we get to catch up and get to know each other even more as we
“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.
Even in the first two lines he comments, “a quick blur of curved silver darting away, having nothing to do with your life or your death” (23-24). In these two lines, he dramatizes how irrelevant a life seems after one dies as he compares a micro piece of silver bolting away, not even clearly, but blurrily. Then he proceeds to add a transcendentalist idea with the line “the tide will take you, or the lake will accept it all … sink towards the … bottom” (25-26), noting that the person becomes one with nature after having a quick death. Soon after the lake takes the person into its waters, the person leaves “behind what [they] have already forgotten, the surface…” (27), which implies that once the person is dead, life will not be remembered and all that will be left is the hollow corpse. The last bit of “now overrun with the high travels of clouds” (27-28), makes death seem like flesh-to-earth decay, instead of taking into account an afterlife of some kind. After the person drowns, the lake restores its natural, tranquil state, as if nothing happened and the death of a person had no more significance than the death of a feral
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.
One day when I was five years old I recall my grandfather asking "Steve, why don't, you go with us to Minnesota next week?" My grandfather was a very important person to me, until he died in 1986. I spent every possible moment of my life either with him or thinking about him. Everything he loved, I loved, and vice-versa. Being bored with my present lifestyle in Peoria and excited about traveling with my grandfather, I took up his offer. After a day long car ride with my father, uncle, and grandparents, I arrived at the location that would forever influence and inspire my life: Lost Lake, Minnesota.
The speaker sees this scenery in his mind. As a reader, I can even imagine him standing in a dark room looking at a woman singing and imagining his old days with his mother. Using the picturesque words such as “softly,” “dusk...