Essay about Once More to the Lake and The Ring of Time

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

“That Summer I left Childhood Was White” was an autobiography written by Audre Lorde. Throughout the story, she talks about one childhood memory when she went to Washington, D.C. as a graduation present. While she was there she notices that most of the site looked white. “The Waitress was white, and the counter was white…” (Lorde, Audre) tell the reader how she saw Washington, D.C. after she couldn’t eat at the ice cream parlor. The way the story organized its observation was the uses of the narrative cue because the format was by telling the reader detail of thing they packed. “...There were piles of napkins and a little tin box with wash cloths dampened with rosewater…”(Lorde, Audre) to give the reader an image of what was packed. Another

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”

Often in literary works the author includes a theme to go along with their story. Two examples of this are the “The Seven Ages of Man” by Shakespeare and “Demeter” retold by Edith Hamilton. Both literary works follow similar themes throughout their story’s. The theme of both of these works is one of a cycle, “The Seven Ages of Man” being the cycle of becoming a man and the cycle of seasons in “Demeter”. The two cycles can be compared through the point of view they are told from, the amount of emotion in their stories and the importance of their cycles.

Although many may not believe it until it happens to them, time can pass by so swiftly that one won’t even register it at first. Yes, time passing is a part of life, but the realization of it is another story within itself. “Forgetfulness,” a poem by Billy Collins, and an excerpt from “Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White both provide a clear example of how fast time can go by. In Collin’s piece, he puts together many various ideas one can forget as their life moves incredibly fast. Likewise, in White’s “Once More to the Lake,” the narrator struggles to understand how quickly time really passed and how his son is so similaralike to him. Both of these pieces of writing use X syntax and X diction to develop the common theme of annihilated time.

Authors often create texts that share common themes to teach readers importance of certain aspects and hardships of life. Theme may be expressed through an author’s use of rhetorical devices and many other contributing factors such as figurative language and repetition. The essay, “Once More to the Lake” written by E.B. White and the poem “Forgetfulness” written by Billy Collins, both contain a theme of identity loss. In “Once More to the Lake” E.B White connects to a lake at young age and when returning with his son years later is unable to identify himself. In similar theme “Forgetfulness” describes different factors of human life and everyday things being forgotten and lost. Both White and Collins use repetition and metaphors to further push the theme of identity loss throughout the texts.

This line is the epitome of remembrance. We all look back on our childhood and reminisce on the joyful moments in our life. We cling on to the details, remembering what the scene smelled, tasted, and looked like. This is exactly what E.B White is portraying in his passage “Once More to the Lake.” This line is a

From this sentence, it is understood that the author has grown up quite a bit from when he first went to the lake. In the beginning of the story, he was reflecting on an old memory from when he was a kid. Presently though, he is a grown man with a family of his own. This shows us that he has grown up which relates back to the theme of aging. The structure of the essay also helps to reinforce the feeling of passing time. Throughout E.B. White’s short story, he keeps going back and forth between reliving a memory and living in the present. The text states, “... I remembered clearest of all mornings, when the lake was cool and motionless, remembered how the bedroom smelled of the lumber it was made of and of the wet woods whose scent entered through the screen… when I got back there, with my boy, and we settled into a camp near a farmhouse…” (“Once More to the Lake”, White). Shown here are two sentences that show how the author goes back and forth between the past and present to add to the overall theme of the passing of time. Overall, the syntax in both texts helps to create the common theme of aging and changing times.

When reading literature we often attempt to use particular threads of thought or lenses of critique to gain entry into the implied historic or legendary nature of literature. To accurately process a tale in the light in which it is presented, we have to consider the text from multiple viewpoints. We must take into consideration intentional and affective fallacies and the socioeconomic circumstances of the presenter/author/narrator. We also have to consider how our personal experience creates bias by placing the elements of the story into the web of relationships that we use to interpret the external world. There also is the need to factor in other external pressures, from societal norms, cultural ideals, and psychological themes, and how

John Edgar Wideman’s, “Our Time”, tells the story of how his brother’s mistakes have caused Robby lots of trouble. Many questions have roamed through my head about Robby, John’s brother, and why he turned out the way he was. Why did Robby have to turn out to be the rebel in the family? Could it have been his home town, his family, or his friends? Those are the questions. I feel like it may have been the “ghetto”, Homewood, that influenced him.

Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods is centered around the mysterious disappearance of Kathy Wade. Mysterious is the key word, as throughout the novel O’Brien plays with the fine line between ambiguity and reality. Kathy’s husband John Wade, the main character, is a Vietnam veteran and former politician whose participation in the infamous Mai Lai Massacre caused his fall from grace. Following a landslide defeat in the congressional elections, Kathy and John retreat to solitude in an isolated cabin in the Minnesota woods. Here, O’Brien highlights the stress that secrecy has had on their relationship. During their retreat, Kathy disappears in the middle of the night. Their boat is missing, but there are no other clues. O’Brien does

In the last paragraph Frost says “I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” When he uses repeated images he is describing a re-telling of his life’s journey. He explains ages and ages which shows years that have passes he will talk about the two roads in the woods, which were the two paths that he could have taken. He chose to take the one less traveled by, which could have been a harder path but the one he thought was best for him. His last line is more of a philosophical than an actual description. He says “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” Meaning

In “The Story of an Hour” (1894), Kate Chopin presents a woman in the last hour of her life and the emotional and psychological changes that occur upon hearing of her husbands’ death. Chopin sends the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, on a roller coaster of emotional up’s and down’s, and self-actualizing psychological hairpin turns, which is all set in motion by the news of her husband’s death. This extreme “joy ride” comes to an abrupt and ultimately final halt for Mrs. Mallard when she sees her husband walk through the door unscathed. Chopin ends her short story ambiguously with the death of Mrs. Mallard, imploring her reader to determine the true cause of her death.

The passage of time is intrinsically connected to every aspect of life, as it is the construct through which we understand human experiences and the framework through which we comprehend our existence. The essence and effects of temporality reverberate through narratives; acting as a catalyst for action, or becoming an impediment to the future. Through the response that characters in The Wanderer and The Tempest have towards the transience of time, it becomes clear how these effects echo throughout the narrative, prompting these events into movement, and how they seep throughout every aspect of these texts.