More handpicked essays just for you.
Literary devices used in Once More to the Lake
Summary of ONCE AGAIN TO THE LAKE
Summary of ONCE AGAIN TO THE LAKE
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Everyone goes through the transition from childhood to adulthood. Boys become young men, and girls become young women; this is a significant stepping stone in the “journey to maturity.” Of course, becoming mature does not happen over night. Instead, it is a long process of learning from experience, which gives the young adult a new outlook on life and a new set of skills. The initiation theme is discussed in the article “Greasy Lake,” by critic Dennis Vanatta who argues that the author T.C. Boyle has created a narrator who is reflecting on his youth and an evening that would prove to be his stepping stone in the journey to maturity.
Boy creates a new identity to abandon the mistakes he made in his past without confronting his guilt. Having a new name is Boy’s way of dealing with his all-consuming guilt, as in his mind a new identity means a new beginning with no ties to his previous faults. The snowball that Boy threw as a child led him to completely ignore the guilt to the point where he had no recollection of the event. Boy’s suppressed guilt that is eventually forgotten in his new identity ends up leading him to his demise later in his life. Ultimately, guilt has the power to overwhelm and conquer if it is not resolved before critically damaging one’s
This causes him to think of what it would be like without his father, in response he says “Instantly, I felt ashamed of myself forever.” (Wiesel, 106). The only thing
From beginning to end, the son calls his father “Baba” to show his affection and admiration. Despite the father’s inability to come up with a new story, the son still looks up to him. This affectionate term also contrasts with the father’s vision of the “boy packing his shirts [and] looking for his keys,” which accentuates the undying love between the father and son (15 & 16) . The father’s emotional “screams” also emphasize his fear of disappointing the son he loves so much (17). Despite the father’s agonizing visions, the son remains patient and continues to ask for a story, and their relationship remains “emotional” and “earthly”--nothing has changed (20-21).
His son marries, and the narrator and his wife age further, and the transition into old age is complete with the death of the narrator’s father-in-law. Between these events we can see large shifts in attitudes and ideas, as well as health and well-being. These factors provide clear character evolution within the
Children and adults rarely see eye to eye when it comes to differences in the past and present. This is because the idea of innovation is perceived differently by individual generations. In the essay “Once More to the Lake” the author E.B. White struggles with the concept of change, while his son accepts the concept of progress when returning to a family lake house. Through the use of imagery and symbolism the essay conveys how the men see the same place differently. White’s son observes the adjustments at the lake house as improvements.
Moreover, he says, “He could not construct for the child 's pleasure the world he 'd lost without constructing the loss as well and he thought perhaps the child had known this better than he” (154). For the father, the earth enjoyed by the man during his own childhood is a planet that no longer existed to the boy. When the man considers
Rhetorical Analysis for “Once More to the Lake” Life is fleeting and time moves quickly. In the blink of an eye, childhood becomes only a memory and the difficulties of the world become a factor of everyday life. E.B. White reflects on his earlier years in his personal essay “Once More to the Lake,” a detailed account of his childhood memories with his father at the lake. He carries on the father-son tradition by bringing his own son out to the lake, experiencing flashbacks to his youth. White lost his sense of self, as he began identifying himself as his son, feeling as though he was back at the lake with his father.
As the man was drying off his son’s hair by the fire, he thought it was all “like some ancient anointing,” why not “evoke the forms” and “construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them,” showing how the man identifies his son as sacred (McCarthy 74). The simile compares the man’s actions to that of an ancient anointing, in which his son is the one being blessed. This passage demonstrates how the father maintains some belief in religion and equates both beauty and piety to his son. For the man, the boy represents something sacred that creates an incentive for the him to keep living, if only to protect the boy. The man “sat beside him and stroked his hair.
Change occurs every day involuntarily. When people encounter change they are limited to only two points of views on it, negatively or positively. Some may react by panicking and going into denial whereas others may try to adapt to it and make the best out of the situation. It can affect one’s life drastically depending on the situation and how they portray it. In the movie “Rivers and Tides” and the story “Metamorphosis,” and the passage, “Simplexity”, change is initially portrayed as positive, but after a series of events it becomes overthrown by negativity.
to still keep established pace and tone, which is that calm, disassociated mood. At this point the father, the reader might think, is a construction of the husband’s mind, because the husband had focused on “the idea of never seeing him again. . . .” which struck him the most out of this chance meeting, rather than on the present moment of seeing him (Forn 345). However surreal this may be in real life, the narrator manages to keep the same weight through the pacing in the story to give this story a certain realism through the husband’s
Lastly, the two words the son and the man add to the complexity of the relationship. This shows that the man can’t picture himself being a father, especially after knowing he can’t meet the child’s expectation, but will always picture his son being a child in his eyes. In conclusion the author uses literary devices to add depth and emotion to the complex relationship between the two characters. He does this by changing the point of view throughout the poem from son to father. He uses a purposeful structure from present to future coming back to present to demonstrate with the complexity of the father's
The son undergoes moral development during this moment, and Wolff demonstrates this by using foils, symbolism, and by changing the connotation of the word snow. It is due to these literary devices that Wolff demonstrates the son’s moral development during a memorable moment. Throughout the novel it is apparent that the father and mother of the son are complete opposites.
It was there morbidity. This was the real issue between us as it had been between her and my father,”(45). James’s mother is desperate to cure her son of his lies, so much as she doesn’t realize that she is hurting him. James’s mother is distraught and is upset with the fact that he is an outsider and unlike his other siblings. Because his mother does not understand his problem James is yearning to get away from her and find out who he can be without being under the influence of her.
His idiosyncrasy remains loving and understanding, even when his younger son returned home after many of been away with not a penny to his name. The young son showed disobedience to all the goodness his father had offered to him. The young son showed traits such as selfishness as well as being ungrateful. He had no worth for his father’s property nor did he want to work alongside his father on the family farm.
