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Imagery in Once More to the Lake

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As time passes, it can change ones perspective on life. E.B. White’s, “Once More to The Lake,” exemplifies this with vivid imagery and attention to detail. He tells us his childhood memories of a beloved, “camp in Maine,” returning as a man with his son to share and make new memories. With his words he creates a picture from his childhood of pristine colors of the lake, the smells of the woods and cabin, and the way everything looked the same. Now with his son by his side, he is confused by these memories, for he sees himself in his son but also sees himself as his father. He feels as if he is living a dual existence. Seeing himself as his father and how things change, he realizes his own mortality is not far away. When the essay begins, he is speaking of a memory from his childhood and how his family spent a month during the summer at this, “camp in Maine.” On his trip back to Maine with his son, he wonders how things have changed over the time he has been away. He is afraid that his, “holy spot,” has been marred with time. He wonders if the, “Tarred road would have found it out.” Upon his arrival he sees some things have changed, but after settling in he, “could tell it was going to be pretty much the same as it has been before.” After the first night he awakens early to, “the smell of the bedroom,” and, “hearing the boy sneak out,” as he had done many times before. This time he felt, “the illusion that he was I, and therefore, by simple transposition, that I was my father.” Using rich and alive words the reader could almost feel the confusion of his dual role. During the fishing trip with his son, he states, “there had been no years between the ducking of this dragonfly and the other one – the one that was part of memory.” The memory was so vivid he was confused as to which rod he was holding, his or his son’s. The realization of his role as a father and not the child was an experience

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