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An Analysis Of Barbara Kingsolver's Once More To The Lake

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Author E.B. White is an acclaimed author most famous for books such as Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web. A majority of White’s works are composed of essays just like “Once More to the Lake,” which appeared in Harper's magazine. Author Barbara Kingsolver is a talented essayist, poet, and writer. Kingsolver was educated at DePauw University and University of Arizona. Since her writing career began, Kingsolver has won many awards and written many well-known novels such as The Poisoned Bible, Prodigal Summer, and The Bean Trees. “Once More to the Lake” involves a man returning to a lake he has not visited for many years. Recurring theme is nostalgia; the issues almost solely exist because of the passing of time and the changes they bring. “Stone …show more content…

She accepts the reality that not everyone can have the perfect family. which includes single parents, blended families, no parents, and gay families. Kingsolver goes on to share that at one time, she also shared in the idea that it was necessary to have her family imitate the “Family of Dolls” model. Kingsolver’s personal stance is given the spotlight in paragraph ten where she states, “... no fairytale prepared me for the combination of bad luck and persistent hope that would interrupt my dream and lead me to other arrangements” (para 10). Divorces are a reality, and it took this reality to shatter the illusion that the “Family of Dolls” was not what she expected. Now that she is divorced and with a child, she now possesses a strong distaste for the wrongful stereotypes that are set around a “broken” family. Kingsolver’s blatant dislike for those who consider families that end in a divorce as “failed” and not finished is made evident by her angry and defiant tone throughout the essay. One of her main focus points for her essay is the archaic idealism behind the “Family of Dolls.” She then explains this reasoning by revealing the reasoning behind its origin, which was to convince women to give up their jobs for the men returning from war. Kingsolver supports this point by stating in paragraph twenty-two, “ A booming economy required a mobile labor force and demanded that

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White celebrates the idea of family in the form of flashbacks. In E.B. White’s “Once More to the Lake”. White focuses on the memories of his young boyhood at a house by the lake his family would visit regularly. The author that he randomly feels the sudden urge to go back to this large, undisturbed lake. Deciding to take his son with him, the two head back to the lake.

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In the story E.B. Whites “Once more to the lake”, a story based on a father and a son who go on a camping trip, where White becomes captivated with and stuck in his own childhood. It shows that time passes and people grow of age. When white takes his son to the lake he realizes that even though the lake has barely changed, that time has changed. He has a sense of his son replacing him as he is replacing his dad. It was important to White to take his own son back to the same place because he finally comes to the realization that time doesn’t stop for anyone and that you have to move forward and one day grow old.

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