The Three Generations In Edmund Burke's The River King

Edmund Burke was an author and philosopher who once said that, “Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it (“Edmund Burke Quotes”). This quote means that people who do not know or understand the past and the mistakes or events made often are destine to repeat those mistakes or events. Throughout the book, The River King, there are 3 different generations, and in each generations there was a couple that the book focused on. It started with, Annie Howe and Dr. Howe’s generation, then continued into to Betsy Chase and Eric Herman’s generation, and finally Carlin Leander and Harry McKenna’s generation. Throughout all of those three generations, Hoffman shows the repetition of different mistakes or events that happen in the different

Which reveals that there is often repetitiveness in the town's history, when someone is in need for help. When Wright Grey was a detective for the Haddan police he was most known for “...his rescue of three foolish kids from the Haddan School who’d skated onto thin ice… boys who would have surely died had Wright not arrived with a rope and his own obstinate refusal to let them drown” (109). Then, when Abe found Gus in the river and had suspicions of how he died,“He thought about that dark mark on the boy’s forehead, a bruise the color of wild iris, and he decided that for once in his life he would pay attention. He would take note of what this drowning boy had to say” (124). When Wright’s “refusal to let them drown,” it reveals that he was very determined to help them and not let them die. Then with Abe, he wanted to make sure what the “drowning boy had to say” because before he said it was suicide. Though now it shows that he was determined to help Gus, tell his version of the story of how he died. If Wright had not helped the kids they would have “surely died” after falling through the ice into the water and if Abe did not “pay attention” to what Gus “had to say” then he would never found out how he ended up in the river. Because Hoffman uses ice and water motifs throughout the book,

One motif that she used was weather. She used it to show that major flooding was caused by the town trying to start over again in two different generations. She also used ice and water to show that through two different generations two people had very similar reactions when someone needs help, and she used the motif swans to show the repetition of people jumping into relationships to fast. All of this show that Hoffman uses nature motifs throughout The River King, which reveals that history tends to repeat itself in future generations if the sequence is not stopped. Though this cycle of bad decisions and events has come to a close, the town is restating and a new cycle will begin, just like before. Often in the real world mistakes and events are repeated too when they do not need to be. In order to start over in a new cycle the people in it need to remember the past and try not to repeat it. Just like Edmund Burke said,“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it (“Edmund Burke