"Once More to the Lake" by E. B. White

            When author E. B. White gazes at the reflective surface of the lake of Once More to the Lake, much more than a summer’s blue sky is reflected back. In this non-chronological anecdote, the multi-published author (including in Harper’s Magazine (Biography)) E. B. White shares his story of a memory-filled lake from his childhood that he revisits as an adult with his son. It is impossible for him to keep the past from mixing with the present as he makes nostalgic connections to his childhood. He continuously states that he cannot tell if he is the father or the son in the present day. At first, he believes the lake to be exactly the same as it was when he was a child: the same smells, the same people, the same time.  However, through the course of this adventure, he begins to realize slight changes from the childhood lake he knew. Among other things, he specifically realizes the difference in the boats: “the only thing that was wrong now, really, was the sound of the place, an unfamiliar nervous sound of the outboard motors. This was the not that jarred, the one thing that would sometimes break the illusion and set the years moving” (White 183). This realization that this is not the 1904 lake of his childhood but the present day many years later supports his purpose to emphasize to the reader (anyone who may fall under this spell as well) the mortality of humans. The spell is broken at the end when his son goes for a swim and he stays behind, showing that they are two different people, and he “felt the chill of death” (White 185), representing the end or “death” of his childhood. White uses symbolism as the lake is meant to represent his childhood, and the changes to the lake being representative of the fact that he has changed, again supporting the fact that mortality is something every human faces. E. B. White expertly highlights the impermanence of life in Once More to the Lake as he compares his childhood to his present.

Bibliography

"Biography of E.B. White (1899-1985)." Biography of E.B. White. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2014.

 

Belgrade Lakes

Belgrade Lakes, the lake in Maine E. B. White visited as a child and the lake that inspired Once More to the Lake

Photography by Laura Sebastianelli