Once More To The Lake By E. B White Analysis

Aristotle once theorized, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” The book, “The Color of Water” describes the lives of James and Ruth McBride and their journeys to find this happiness. Both of these characters, among other characters in the book struggled for the majority of their lives with the issues of race. They felt as if they were caught between two different worlds; the world of blacks and the world of whites. These struggles left all of the characters feeling forlorn. In McBride’s memoir it is made clear that in order to find happiness, the characters must first be able to confront and then overcome the racial divisions that were so prominent in their lives.

E. B. White's story "Once More to the Lake" is about a man who revisits a lake from his childhood to discover that his life has lost placidity.  The man remembers his childhood as he remembers the lake; peaceful and still.  Spending time at the lake as an adult has made the man realize that his life has become unsettling and restless, like the tides of the ocean.  Having brought his son to this place of the past with him, the man makes inevitable comparisons between his own son and his childhood self, and between himself as an adult and the way he remembers his father from his childhood perspective.  The man's experience at the lake with his son is the moment he discovers his own

It is not a complete story, however. The past is full of holes. The memories seem to have been wipes off the mind and throwing into an abyss, forgotten forever. These uncertain points in a person's life causes him to panic and forget who he is and where he comes from. In the poem Itinerary, the narrator describes his past and how he cannot return to it. It describes how individual try and cling to what they can remember. Looking backwards, they forget the future. In my personal example, I describe a memory of mine that is no longe complete, but is more of a fragment. I describe how this image of my father shapes my actions and personality today. IN my experience the past should be a guide for the future. Positive example should be followed. Looking back at the past should be as simple as looking through a window. It should be admired, but not be allowed to control the

The short story, Once More to the Lake, is about a father who takes his son on a camping trip to a lake in Maine. The father sees that the camp is exactly how he remembers it as he goes through time of reminiscence. As he goes back to nostalgic memories, he sees, through his son, that the camp is the same as when he was a child; however, his time at the camp reveals the true meaning of what time is. Time is a continuing process of the past, present, and future.

The style of eliciting non-memory and memory emphasises the lost of innocence of childhood and of life lived in contrast with life wasted, and the disillusionment that followed leading to his insensitivity and ultimate self-destruction. This information is expository, but it flashes back to Anders' past. The author uses effectively the flashback to provide another viewpoint of the central character because Anders was pictured as unsympathetic in the beginning of the story. The memory itself, fittingly, is narrated in present tense in contrast with most of the story

Although ethos and logos are important modes as well, this text is most effective due to White’s continuous use of pathos. His thesis statement suggests the urge to return to his childhood memories, “…this feeling got so strong I bought myself a couple of bass hooks and a spinner and returned to the lake where we used to go, for a week’s fishing and to re-visit old haunts” (“Once” para. 1).The audience is also evoked with anticipation to what will happen later. A good example of this is “I took along my son, who had never had any fresh water up his nose and who had seen lily pads only from train windows” (“Once” para. 2). The audience is left asking how the trip with his son will compare to his own memories. White goes on to describe in intricate detail his memory of the lake, cabins, and scenery. He uses visual imagery to allow the audience to place themselves in the setting he has described. “White wants to emphasize the permanence of some things, or at least the memory of some things, despite the continual change that happens in the world”

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into

Both texts and their authors talk about the memories assiciated with the objects that they had or meaned something to them. One of the examples of an object's memory was, "a piano brought down from syracuse, the one my mother played as a girl. This shows how the narrator associates the piano with the memory of their mother playing it as a child. An example of a memeory from passage 2 is, "tin box, oh how you remind me of the swell of other seas, the roar of

In the Lake of the Woods is a fictional mystery written by Tim O'Brien. Through the book we learn that our lovers, husbands, and wives have qualities beyond what our eyes can see. John Wade and Kathy are in a marriage so obscure that their secrets lead to an emotional downfall. After John Wade loss in his Senatorial Campaign, his feeling towards Kathy take on a whole different outlook. His compulsive and obsessive behavior causes Kathy to distance herself from him. His war experience and emotional trauma are a major cause for his strange behavior. We remain pondering about Kathy's mysterious disappearance, which becomes fatal for her. Possible scenarios are presented in eight

Memory is used as a powerful conduit into the past; childhood experiences held in the subconscious illuminate an adult’s perception. Harwood uses tense shifts throughout her poetry to emphasise and indicate the interweaving and connection the past and the present hold. By allowing this examination of the childhood memories, Harwood identifies that their significance is that of an everlasting memory that will dominate over time’s continuity and the inevitability of death.

E.B White, author of “Once More to the Lake” explores the dynamic relationship between father and son to convey the power of memory and the inevitable chill of mortality. The symbol of the dragonfly and the lake creates a sense of duality while introducing subtle changes throughout the essay.

I chose to write about E.B. White's, "Once More to the Lake." I relate heavily to this article because of the correlation between the past and the present, and between the similarities I see between my experiences as a child, and the same experiences through the eyes of my children. Last year, my wife and I took our kids to Walt Disney World in Florida. The trip to me was a merging of the past and present. As we were walking around the park, I remembered sights and smells from the trip when I was a young child. The memory that stood out the most was of the jumping water. The water would jump from one part of this display to another seemingly by magic. I was determined to give my four daughters the same memory. Seeing their delight at

Obviously the author has lived through the depression and was black because one could not write something so accurate in accordance to that time period and have one feel the deep emotional impact of her writings without experiencing it personally.  In the first sentence she writes “…all I seem to remember is dust—the brown, crumbly dust of late summer—arid, sterile dust that gets in to the eyes and makes them water, gets into the throat and between the toes of the bare brown feet.”  In this phrase the words give a harsh, cruel feeling of how the depression was, which could then explain how she remembers the depression and that it was a hard time for her.  Most likely it was a significantly hopeless moment in her life.  In the next paragraph she writes “When the memory of those marigolds flashes across my mind, a strange nostalgia comes with it and remains long after the picture has faded.”  Knowing the marigolds symbolize hope the word “nostalgia” gives a feeling of longing, since the denotative meaning is yearning.  When stating the marigolds give a “strange nostalgia” the author could be thinking how she, sometime in her life, longed to have hope.  She needed to have something to look forward to or just something to look at to give her hope.  Later, towards the end of the story she explains “…Innocence involves an unseeing acceptance of things at face value, an ignorance of the area below the surface.”  The words she uses give a sense of wisdom

I think you did a great job deciphering E.B. Whites’ narrative. I have to agree with you in a sense that this narrative brought back many memories. One memory that I could remember the most while reading this is of the times my sisters, and I would go fishing as children. My grandparents owned eighty acres with three ponds. We were so excited to go fishing we would be up and out the door before anyone was awake. First, we had to dig for worms and get all of our gear along with a paddle boat. We would spend all day on the water. I can remember several times of just sitting back and enjoying serenity and beauty of it all. This narrative brought back many wonderful memories and was an excellent choice for making us aware

The writer uses language to present the memories of the past as a continuous image. This is evident when the writer quotes “ faintly like an afterimage”, the simile emphasizes the introduction of the past and the memories of the protagonist have flooded back. Additionally the adjective “ faintly” portrays the fact that the character could vividly remember the past. Moreover this suggests a sense of confusion as the protagonist is having difficulties being able to recall the past.