Past Vacation In E. B. White's Childhood
Siddhi Shah
As E.B. White reflects on his childhood memories and revisits his favorite past vacation spot in Maine, he undergoes an internal struggle between acting and viewing the lake like he did as a kid and viewing it as his father had.White suffers a”dual existence” as he relives the experiences and sensations of his childhood while observing his son experience them for the first time. This creates the strange feeling that he is sometimes his son who is fishing and boating, and that he is sometimes his father. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how the lake in Maine reminds White that he is an adult. By comparing his son’s actions with his own behavior years before, and by describing the lake’s appearance, White soon accepts
the fact that his son’s maturity means that he too is subject to the natural course of death as well.
He reaches this conclusion by describing his emotional dissonance where he states “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.” Such feeling of getting older developed a conflict inside White.The contrast between his pleasant memories with his own complex emotions brought White peace and yet confusion. Furthermore, White described how his son slipped on his swim trunk, something White had done in the past. Suddenly, a “chill of death” overcame White, representing how the memories of his father and his own mortality had shuddered through his body.
This joyful time White and his son spend together lapses into the author focusing on his own mortality and accepting that some day he will only be a memory like his own father. White does not drown his reader with sentimentality but reminisces about the past and revels in the present time with his son.
As E.B. White reflects on his childhood memories and revisits his favorite past vacation spot in Maine, he undergoes an internal struggle between acting and viewing the lake like he did as a kid and viewing it as his father had.White suffers a”dual existence” as he relives the experiences and sensations of his childhood while observing his son experience them for the first time. This creates the strange feeling that he is sometimes his son who is fishing and boating, and that he is sometimes his father. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how the lake in Maine reminds White that he is an adult. By comparing his son’s actions with his own behavior years before, and by describing the lake’s appearance, White soon accepts
the fact that his son’s maturity means that he too is subject to the natural course of death as well.
He reaches this conclusion by describing his emotional dissonance where he states “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.” Such feeling of getting older developed a conflict inside White.The contrast between his pleasant memories with his own complex emotions brought White peace and yet confusion. Furthermore, White described how his son slipped on his swim trunk, something White had done in the past. Suddenly, a “chill of death” overcame White, representing how the memories of his father and his own mortality had shuddered through his body.
This joyful time White and his son spend together lapses into the author focusing on his own mortality and accepting that some day he will only be a memory like his own father. White does not drown his reader with sentimentality but reminisces about the past and revels in the present time with his son.