The Passage of Time in E.b. White's 'Once More to The Lake'

Whilst children all over know him as E.B. White, his relatives and confidants call him Andy. He wrote classic stories such as Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Webb. These cute stories grabbed kid’s attentions and imaginations. Then a change of thought took place in Mr. White’s mind that changed his genre to essay in “Once More To The Lake.” An incredibly beautiful piece of writing that was published fall of 1941 right before Americas entry into the second world war. By changing his thoughts Andy stepped out of his comfort zone to get outside of an oncoming storm by thinking about what it means to retreat to a lake and be outside of that for a moment. Study shows time is the most valuable commodity. Free time for E.B. White meant reflecting back to past and present memories and the passage of time in Whites identity. A soul's existence is momentary, while unquestionable components of creation, like the pleasure of youth, carry on with, for all future time, for dissimilar age groups.

White evokes feelings of optimism and anticipation with introductory sentences, such as “I took along my son who had never had any fresh water up his nose and who had only seen lily pads from train windows.” White connects with the audience by drawing them into the argument using pathos. He elicits emotions with phrases like “a cool and motionless lake”, and “as he buckled the swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death.” He is no longer experiencing the lake as he did when he was a child. White feels time passing and death coming. He also describes of a “fade-proof lake”, and “unshatterable woods” because they will always be embedded into his memory. Childhood memories will never be forgotten by White, especially the memories he enjoyed the most. White also evokes feelings of apprehension in the reader with his descriptions of the sea.

One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. Imparting truth, accepting mortality, creating memories is E.B. White's message. He says at the end of the story that his son pulls on a wet bathing suit to go swimming. White expressed pain in his muscles as he felt death, realizing that while the pleasures of the lake are the same to his son as they were to him as a child is now playing the role of the older man. He realizes that his son will soon play the part of adult hood. His point of view when looking at his son is the sense of physical in a way we pass history on to our children, and how going to a lake in the summer in Maine, doing the same thing that your father did and having your children do the same thing is kind of continuity of a certain kind of American reality. His retreating back to the lake helped him develop an idea of his mortality and to seize every good moment. He settles comfortably into this calm state that represents eternity.

To raise awareness of the inevitability of growing old is White's purpose. While revisiting his ideal boyhood vacation spot White describes his struggle to come to terms with aging and to stop living in the familiarity of the past. Some things do not change, such as the thought of a person, the feelings towards other people that one has, the longing for something, and so on. The lake supports the idea of the necessity of permanence, to some extent, in life. Even though the lake has changed over the years, it remains a lake that White can revisit. A man’s reflection of his past, it’s connection with his current life, in the realization that this connection brings is life changing. The Lake immediately coveys a tention between experiential time and historical time that pervades the work. As White struggles to find himself he knows that he cannot relive the moment through his son’s eye’s and he knows he can’t go back in time.

What a bittersweet story of returning to a fishing trip, of reflecting and expressing the memory of childhood and the amazing experiences one had. Carpe Diem seizing the moment to create a retreating place to go to overcome obscurity or whatever psychical element you're going through. We can be like E.B. White by seizing the moments. Make time to free your mind and reflect on pass and present memories, your identity overtime, and your perspective on a matter. Time has been transformed, and we have been changed. Remember to enjoy life, because our time here is brief. Life will continue from generation to generation.