Critique of E. B. White’s “Once More to the Lake”
White uses nostalgia in his comparisons of his memories as a boy and his experience as an adult in examination of the form of arrival – farm wagon vs. car; beverages at the local store – Coke vs. sarsaparilla; and boating on the lake – inboard vs. outboard motors. Throughout his remembrances however, White maintains a tone of guarded surprise that so many things remained the same, as they were when he had visited as a child. However, as the writer Epstein observes that a phrase “inexplicably sunny inclinations” as noted in White’s obituary published in The New Yorker magazine for which he wrote,caught Epstein’s attention. Epstein goes on to comment that this more sober style of writing is perhaps the result of living in a more grounded way upon his move to Maine after living in New York City. Epstein observes that life seemed to E.B. White to be almost perpetually alarming.Readers can detect that fear when White concludes his essay with the observation of his son at the lake, pulling on a wet bathing suit. “As he buckled the swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death.” (White, "Once More to the Lake."). Moving away from the more prosaic elements of observing the unchanging nature of the lake, the dragon flies, the boat docks and flag poles, White lets his readers glimpse his momentary terror of awareness of time passing and death approaching.
White is able to straddle these seemingly conflicting ideas of pleasant nostalgia and fear of death by evoking images of peacefulness before adding a poignant note of sadness. An example of this technique can be found in his remark that incessant wind makes himwish for the “placidity of a lake in the woods.” (White, "Once More to the Lake").In saying this, White is deliberately contrasting the stormy reality of the present with calm thoughts of his childhood lake. The author mourns the ending of things from his own childhood, such as the absence of the horse track while walking to the farmhouse for dinner. Yet he also evokes the feeling that no time has passed at all – the waitresses are still fifteen and there are still souvenir birch-bark canoes to buy and post cards showing things a “little better than they looked (White, “Once More to the Lake”).
Another way White lets his reader see into his conflicting worlds of being the adult and the child at the same time as he experiences the lake from a father’s perspective. Images of doubles are mentioned while they fish: he cites seeing two bass and minnows swimming by, “each minnow with its small,individual shadow, doubling the attendance.” (White, "Once More to the Lake"). White lets his reader feel the twin sensation of being boy and man as he shares the experience of being in his son’s place and at the same time recalling what the role of his father might have been. The author’s skill at pairing beauty and sadness with the memory sharing prose of a simple narrative shows E.B. White as a writer Epstein says, “he was still able to discover the cloud in every silver lining (Epstein, “E.B. White, Dark & Lite”). So too is his essay “Once More to the Lake” – a sweet reminecesnce with touch of fear of death.
Works cited:
Epstein, Joseph, “E.B. White, Dark & Lite.” Commentary Magazine RSS.Commentary, n.d. Web. 06 July 2014.
White, E. B. "Once More to the Lake." (n.d.): n. pag. Web
E.B. White, Dark & Lite Commentary Magazine." Commentary Magazine RSS.Commentary, n.d. Web. 06 July 2014.
