Once More To The Lake E. B White Analysis

E.B. Whites piece Once More to the Lake takes place on Belgrade Lakes in Maine. The story is told in a non-chronological sense, and White discusses the trips he took to the lake as a child and compares them to the trip he takes with his own son, many years later. The theme of the short personal essay is the passage of time and the changes that come with it. He uses sensory details abundantly to explain the passage of time and how it has affected the lake and its surroundings. He describes a feeling of “dual existence” when he’s spending time with his son. He can’t tell if he is his son, or if he is his father. The story goes on to tell let you of this “holy spot,” and how time has not aged the lake. Revisiting the ageless lake with his own son makes White realize his own mortality. Was White son or father? Was time frozen? “I wondered how time would have marred this unique, holy spot––the coves and streams, the hills that the sun set behind, the camps and the paths behind the camps. I was sure that the tarred road would have found it out and I wondered in what other ways it would be desolated.” White discusses the traits the lake …show more content…
Collect memories, because all though they will fade, they will never truly be gone, and the smallest detail will remind you of hundreds of different things. White portrayed this through his essay of how the camp on the lake brought back not only the memories of the scenery and the lakes finest details, it also brought back the memories he shared with his father and almost relived those memories, but with his own son. “…I watched him, his hard little body, skinny and bare, saw him wince slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy, icy garment. As he buckled the swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death.” White was feeling the sense of a cold wet garment being pulled up as he watched his son get dressed to head into the lake. Was White father or