Once More to the Lake Analysis

E.B. White's "Once More to the Lake," essay is a reflection upon a family experience he had beside his favorite childhood area. Even though the essay takes places while he is in his older years, it focuses more on his childhood state with his father at the same location. White uses a myriad of rhetorical devices in his essay that paints a picture and puts you directly into the story. Not only did White use numerous rhetorical devices, but he combined rhetorical methods to bring his past to our present.

White used a nicely planned set of rhetorical devices. He used strong ones that put forth a message in just the right places. White did not over-crowd, or bog down his essay with them; he simply connected them and let them flow together evenly. His use of personification and alliterations bring the essay to life. Like here with, "two-track road," and, "bait box" White personifies a car as a person standing and possibly watching with the line "cars stood in front of the store" It is a line as such that puts the essay into your mind as a movie. A strong metaphor that White used was, "stillness of the cathedral," to describe the placidity of the area he was in. He creates even more images using words that appeal to the senses greatly with lines like, "smell of the pine-laden air" and, "the noise they made was a sedative, an ingredient of summer sleep."

White also effectively combined the descriptive and narrative methods of writing. As mentioned in the above paragraph with examples, White gave life to the sensory imagery he produced. He did so while giving his recount of his visit to the lake with his father. His use of first person tells the story as if he were face-to-face with me. In combination with his descriptiveness, it is like White took me to the lake and gave me a tour of his childhood. And he also did so while combining his past with the present.

E. B. White presented to major themes in his essay. They were time and mortality. These are...
tracking img