WHITE ONCE MORE TO THE LAKE FREE

The shifting of time and captured memories happens seamlessly between the transitions of when E.B. This illusion of grandfather, father, and son is a theme that plays out again throughout and at the end of the essay. The illusion of himself, his father, and his son being one and the same at different times is sustained in this camp in Maine where he had such fond memories. In this peaceful setting, carrying out activities in the present with his own son, he is reminiscing about the past the line is blurring between the two. In simple and less poetic terms, our lives closely overlap with those we love most and the places we hold most dear. “I seemed to be living a dual existence.â€ This line refers to how the author is understanding the juxtaposition that is life. I would love to think more about how I use transitions instead of begrudging them as “boring but necessaryâ€ in the future. It gives insight into his perspective then and now.

This short paragraph towards the beginning not inly describes the place, but how he experienced it as a child. A child alone could find the undisturbed areas and expand them in their mind in order to make them “infinitely remote and primeval.â€ What I love about White’s transitions is that the story flows beautifully like a conversation and it allows for more depth. Because of his childhood wonder and imagination, it was still wild. However, his final sentence flips everything on its head. He explains that his family was one of the cottage owners. There are cottages and farms all around, breaking up the immersion of nature. It begins by claiming the lake is not wild at all and ends by saying it is, “infinitely remote and primeval.â€ White starts this transition by explaining why it is not wild. This paragraph, though short, manages to completely contradict itself.

WHITE ONCE MORE TO THE LAKE FREE

Please feel free to also respond to any other aspect of the essay.

What do you take from this to apply to your own work? To the precision of the language, the rhythm and music of the words, the clarity of the story and meaning. Pay close attention to the transition from sentence to sentence, phrase to phrase. (There are 13 paragraphs you can identify which paragraph you chose by giving us the number). Time is also a thematic element in the essay: the conflation of father and son, the constant (and sometimes ironic) notion that things don’t change, and ultimately, the final line about “the chill of death.” Along the way, of course, the essay is filled with rich, specific details, keeping us engaged in landscape and story of the essay.įor this response, choose one paragraph. An essay works best when the turns and moves it makes flow logically from one sentence to the next, like a drive through a landscape, or a float on a river.Īlso, note how he begins in the very specific “One summer,” and then widens to the more general “We returned summer after summer.” Toward the end of the paragraph, “A few weeks ago…” again transitions us.Īn essay should not be a house of mirrors, or a corn maze.

Specifically, he begins with “One summer.” Then, he uses the phrasing “I have since become…” to move us to understand him now as a man.

We often talk about transitions between paragraphs, but what about within a paragraph? Notice how White uses phrases to keep us oriented, even as he transitions us in time. In the first paragraph, for example, we get the introduction to his boyhood trips to the lake in Maine, his since becoming a “sea-water man”, and then, “a few weeks ago,” his return to the lake with his son. Part of the beauty of this remarkable essay is how seamlessly White is able to move us in time without it ever feeling disjointed. You might know him best from his children’s classic, Charlotte’s Web.

White once more to the lake