Street Scenes By E. B White And Hood Analysis

Gloria Sabri

James Billings

English-101W

21 October, 2016

Each culture has its own way of living based upon the expectations of family living. Within those expectations, there is a dominant gender role that comes into play. In the essay “Once More to the Lake,” White lives a traditional life, where men play the more dominant role. In the essay “Street Scenes”, Hood brings the reader back to her home town through vivid memories of her modernized life, where she and her mother play the female dominant role in society. E.B White and Hood represent entirely different gender roles that are acquired in society within contrasting generations, containing similar values.

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

becomes difficult to distinguish himself from his own son. When doing the things with his son that he once did with his father, he fails to realize how he has truly changed into a father figure. White explains this confusion within the situation, “I looked at the boy, who was silently watching his fly, and it was my hands that held his rod, my eyes watching. I felt dizzy and didn't know which rod I was at the end of” (White 233). He develops feelings of loss, and struggles with an identity crisis. Throughout the entire essay, there is a focus on a lost sense of time. White lingers in his nostalgic thoughts and appreciation for the lake because the experiences and memories that took place there make him feel as though he hasn’t aged and will remain in that happy time that his son is living in.
Throughout the experience, he becomes more accepting of the issue and no longer sees himself in his son's image. Instead he comes to the much deeper conclusion that while his son is continuing to grow up, he is nearing the end of his life. White explains his deep understanding of the concept of life and death all while he still is torn between the delightful memories of his past, and the conflicting emotions that stir within him. He starts to realize the reality of mortality, “When the others went swimming my son said he was going in too…As he buckled the swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death” (White). White enjoyed his summers at the lake so much, he tried to relive those experiences through his son. During the entire time he spent with his son at the lake, he was reminiscing about the past times he had spent there with his father. These memories have the ability to make him feel as though he can relive his younger days. When he sees his son rushing towards the water to swim in the rain, he immediately envisions himself doing the same when he was younger. He comes to the realization that he is getting older and is eventually approaching the inevitable death that continues to creep up him. He also starts to understand that he can no longer live in the past, but only move forward while those memories slowly fade. He realizes that he far different from his son in the fact that he is now a father figure who carries important responsibilities. It is in that moment that he realized the reality of the situation, meaning that he will grow older and eventually death will hover over him just like it has to his dad, as it will to his son. When his son put on wet shorts he was physically feeling a chill from being cold. On the other hand, White mentally felt a chill of death in his groin when realizing his life expectancy. The groin is used for reproduction purposes that allows for generations to be created. He has come to an understanding that not only is he getting closer to his death, but also his generation is slowly coming to an end.
White ends the essay by leaving the reader with a major reality check.

It leaves the reader wondering about the life cycle the same way he worries about his. Am I going to die soon? Have I lost track of time and the people around me? Whites last statement leaves behind a trail of questions because that is what he endures throughout his life.

In the essay “Street Scenes”, Hood reminisces her past and family life through vivid memories of her hometown. Unlike White, her memories consist of places along a road in which she travels time after time. Both her route and White’s memory of the lake provide a familiar sense of the past. Both of these places are symbolic in recalling the memories the past. Similarly, Hood finds herself driving on a road that links together her past present and

future.