An Art of Writing to Interpret Life

                       - On Once More to the Lake by E.B.White

When recalling the past, most of us can find many precious memories. But some of these memories are so real that we may get lost in the confusion between the memory and the reality. E.B.White `s Once More to the Lake describes his revisit to a lake he had been to in childhood and his dual sensation stimulated by the confusion.

With great appreciation of the lake, White viewed everything around the lake same as the past. However, as time’s fleeing, he finally found the changes of the “old haunts”. As he remembered, human and the lake used to coexist harmoniously with each other. Beautiful as the lake was, every scene around could draw a pleasing picture to the eye-the peaceful lake was the background; the tranquil cottage along the shore was the design; the running kids and the American flag flying against the white clouds painted the picture a design of vitality. Now, things changed and harmony seemed gone. People felt less excited for the first sight of the pleasant scene at arriving. There were no loud greeting from the other campers and no cheer about the discharge of the heavy trunk. And the sound of the motorboats became something nervous disturbing people ` s sweet dream.

When portraying the memory and the reality, White used lots of details and description. He laid emphasis on many subtle things, of which he made use to paint his memory and the reality he saw in readers` mind. For examples, in the first morning of his revisit, the smell of the bedroom and the sound of the son sneaking out set out his illusion whether he was the father or the son; and the ducking of dragonfly led him to the conclusion that there was no passage of time. These details and description let us see what he saw and feel what he felt. It was amazing that they had the magic to suck us into White `s experience and we became a part of it, watching the whole story developing.

  Moreover, to make the essay more attractive, White also adopts many ways of rhetoric, including metaphor, imagery and repetition.

Although White didn’t use much rhetoric of metaphor, where he used it always impressed us deeply. When reading his description of the lake as calm as the cathedral, the bright characteristic of the church soon came to our mind. It subtly decorated a sense of placidity and mystery to the lake. And in his comparison of the lake to an enchanted sea, we could feel strongly the great difference between the blustering sea and the quiet lake.

Through the rhetoric of imagery, White represented the main idea of the whole essay. The similarities between his memory and the reality puzzled him in his imagination of his dual existence. He brought about his illusion every moment when the memory and the reality coincided with each other. It was very helpful to attract readers to follow the order of his thinking. They were kept thinking to find out his real identity from the beginning to the end.

The rhetoric White used most is repetition. He repeated the sentence “there had been no years.” in many paragraphs. In the hope that everything would not change, he found it difficult to accept the reality of changes. The repeated sentence was actually a monologue from the bottom of his heart, through which he tried to blind himself to the changes. Seemingly, the repetition can easily confuse readers because it was those unchanged things that White actually aimed to stress by the comparison with the changes.  

Besides, White elaborately inserted some meaningful events into the essay. Among them, the thunderstorm served as the turning point of the whole story. The feeling of oppression when the storm was coming indicated his puzzle of the illusion and his discontentment of the changes. When the rain was falling down, people cried and shouted, running in joy and relief. So did White. It was because that he finally realized that life was in progress, and he should look forward to the future.

If art has a purpose, it is to interpret life. White explained his attitude towards life by his art of writing. Once he fell into the confusion of the memory and the reality. Yet, now he realized and faced directly with the progress of life.

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