White's Childhood Lake
Respond to questions about E.B. White’s “Once More to the Lake.”
1. What does White suggest about the nature of memory? Why, for example, can he sometimes feel like both his father and his son?
White suggests the nature of memory is the repeating of generations.
He felt like his father because with his son he remembers doing the same things that his father did when he was younger, and he felt like his son because his son was doing some of the same things he had done with his father when he was a boy.
2. Cite two examples of the way White moves between his present and his past and explain the details that trigger his journey back in time.
a. “I knew it, lying in bed the first morning smelling the bedroom and hearing the boy sneak …show more content…
Through White’s childhood lake has changed over the years, certain details have remained the same. Cite two examples of what had remained unchanged over the years.
a. “The small waves were the same, chucking the rowboat under the chin as we fished at anchor, and the boat was the same boat, the same color green and the ribs broken in the same places, and under the floorboards the same fresh water leavings and debris- the dead hellgrammite, the wisps of moss, the rusty discarded fishhook, the dried blood from yesterday’s catch” (White 195-196).
b. “ Pattern of life indelible with fade-proof lake, the wood unshattered, the pasture with the sweetfern and the juniper forever and ever” (White 196)
5. Writers sometimes use sentence fragments for their stylistic effect. Locate and then cite one such fragment in White’s essay and explain the purpose.
“There had been jollity and peace and goodness” (White 197). He was stating how it was when he was younger remembering how things were back then.
6. Explain the last sentence in White’s essay: “As he buckles the swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death” (86).
The meaning of the last sentence in White’s essay was stating the obvious of how cold it was when his little boy was putting on the wet swimming trunks to go
1. What does White suggest about the nature of memory? Why, for example, can he sometimes feel like both his father and his son?
White suggests the nature of memory is the repeating of generations.
He felt like his father because with his son he remembers doing the same things that his father did when he was younger, and he felt like his son because his son was doing some of the same things he had done with his father when he was a boy.
2. Cite two examples of the way White moves between his present and his past and explain the details that trigger his journey back in time.
a. “I knew it, lying in bed the first morning smelling the bedroom and hearing the boy sneak …show more content…
Through White’s childhood lake has changed over the years, certain details have remained the same. Cite two examples of what had remained unchanged over the years.
a. “The small waves were the same, chucking the rowboat under the chin as we fished at anchor, and the boat was the same boat, the same color green and the ribs broken in the same places, and under the floorboards the same fresh water leavings and debris- the dead hellgrammite, the wisps of moss, the rusty discarded fishhook, the dried blood from yesterday’s catch” (White 195-196).
b. “ Pattern of life indelible with fade-proof lake, the wood unshattered, the pasture with the sweetfern and the juniper forever and ever” (White 196)
5. Writers sometimes use sentence fragments for their stylistic effect. Locate and then cite one such fragment in White’s essay and explain the purpose.
“There had been jollity and peace and goodness” (White 197). He was stating how it was when he was younger remembering how things were back then.
6. Explain the last sentence in White’s essay: “As he buckles the swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death” (86).
The meaning of the last sentence in White’s essay was stating the obvious of how cold it was when his little boy was putting on the wet swimming trunks to go