Summary Of Once More To The Lake By E. B. White

acAnalytical Questions Regarding an Argument’s Structure
Once More to the Lake
By E. B. White
Examine the argument’s opening statement? In the first paragraph Mr. White story speaks of a man’s memories in the summer of 1904. This man began to remember trips to the lake he took with his family and of his father. This month long camping trips were an annual event to the lake; in Maine. These trips always took place in the month of August.
He talks about, his siblings and himself getting ringworm from some kittens and rubbing Pond’s Extraction on morning and night. His father rolling the canoe over fully dressed.
The love he and his siblings have for the lake in Maine was like nothing else they have ever experienced. He also expresses his longing for the lake and its placidity of the lake in the woods. He speaks about how he has a love for salt-water since becoming
an adult, but often how he longs for the indecent wind that blows across the afternoon and into the evening when he is out in the salt-water.
The memories become so strong that he purchases bass fishing hooks and spinners and takes his son to the lake.
What strategy does the writer employ?
Why does the writer employ this strategy?
Examine each section of the writer’s argument. On the trip to the lake, he begins to wonder how time had marred the landscape that he felt was a holy spot with its cove, streams and hills, and the sun set and paths behind the camps.
He started to remember many things about the lake such as, early mornings, the smell of the bedroom, how he use to sneak out to the canoe in the mornings to begin his day traveling along the shore line and trying not to disturb the stillness of the water.
After spending their first night at the lake, he began to recognize the smells of the cabin, and awaking to his son sneaking out to begin his day on the canoe just as he did as a boy. He began to feel himself think that he was his father and his son was him as a boy. Which, he describes, as a duel existence. Throughout the story as he participates in activities with his son he sees himself in this duel role, where he remembers participating in the activities as a child and now experiencing them as an adult comparing himself to his father, who passed away many years
ago.
On one of the afternoons while at the lake, a thunderstorm blows in. He remembers how these use to blow in as a child and how they had not changed since he was a child. Then when the storm had calmed and the rain came down how the light of hope began to return to the camp and all the campers. He watched as the campers began running out into the rain with joy and relief to go swimming in the lake as the rain washed over them, as the bright cries perpetuating the deathless joke about how they were getting drenched and the children screaming with delight at the new sensation of bathing in the rain and the joke about getting drenched linking the two generations in a strong indestructible chain. His son wanted to participate in this bathing ceremony. He watched as his son pulled on his wet swimming trunks over his skinny, little hard body, wince slightly as he pulled them around his vitals the small soggy, icy garment wet from hanging out during the storm. In his groin he felt the chill of death.
In what order are the claims presented?
Why are they presented in this order?
How does the writer conclude the argument? He concludes by realizing the cycle of life, and where he is now the father and his son will one day stand in his shoes realizing the same thing many years down the road. Creating memories, at the lake with his family, his father gave to him.
What strategy does the writer employ?
How might the rhetorical situation have influenced his or her choice of strategy for concluding the argument?